SCENTED LEAVES. 



181 



not expect, because we have never found that they 

 come without the seasonal light and heat. 



The fungi which spring up in the autumn, and 

 come like the vulturesor the ravens of vegetation, 

 to prey upon the dead and the dying, put forth no 

 leaves, and expand no flowers, and they are rank. 

 They come not up in sweetness to the humblest of 

 the vernal tribes, from the leaves of many of 

 which, when they are dried without heating, we 

 have some of the sweetest of our scents. It is 

 the scented vernal grass which gives to new hay 

 all that sweetness, which wiles old and young 

 to the hay field at tedding time ; and the little 

 woodruff which hides itself in the grove is even 

 more fragrant in its decay. Yet they are both 

 tiny and humble to look at : 





VERNAL GRASS. 



WOODRUFF. 



All these early plants are kept fresh and sweet 

 by the vernal showers ; but as death creeps over 

 the land, and ven mushrooms and moulds begin 

 R 



