APRIL. 75 



are not chilled, and the intermediate, encroaching rim of 

 winter produces no ill effect. The buds on every tree con- 

 tinue to swell, as might be expected ; but creeping plants, 

 as arbutus, are not blighted, for from beneath the snow I 

 have gathered fully opened blossoms. Such occurrences 

 must not be misinterpreted; they do not indicate that 

 arbutus is a lover of cold weather, but that it has strength 

 to withstand it when it comes. It has always appeared to 

 me that a white frost was more destructive than a black 

 one. A cold, dry atmosphere, even when thin ice forms, 

 has appeared not to affect wild flowers ; while many blos- 

 soms withered when the sunshine melted from them crys- 

 tals of frost. 



It would be hard to determine, in years, how long has 

 April been the uncertain moon it now is : doubtless for 

 tens of centuries, and the vegetation that has become 

 established through natural agencies is not easily discon- 

 certed. It appears to discount all probable contingencies, 

 and the not infrequent snows that March left as its spite- 

 ful legacy to the woods and fields are accepted with better 

 grace than is generally supposed. 



I have often wished that good old Zeisberger had been 

 more explicit, and not merely stated that the Delaware 

 Indians called April Quitauweuheivi giscliucli, the Spring 

 Moon. The word has a far different meaning, a fuller 

 one than that, but just what, I have never learned. To 

 say it is a spring month in New Jersey is as unsatisfactory 

 as to say that April is derived from " Aperio I open." It 

 is true that, by actual count, more buds open then than in 

 March, but so gradual is the difference, and so uncertain, 

 withal, that a better name could readily be found. Per- 

 haps the Indians meant, " moon of preparation." I call it 

 the month of expectation. As a whole, it is a horrid 

 hotch-potch, but seldom is it without days when Nature 

 becomes ecstatic. 



