HAILING FAR SUMMER 



IN February wild plants and flowers make a noticeable step 

 towards spring. Half- evergreen weeds which linger through 

 winter, with a few stained blossoms, begin to put forth 

 greener and fresher shoots ; and in many sheltered corners of 

 the lanes and woods new stems thrust up through the mould. 

 The earliest flowers of the year are in full bloom in a normal 

 season by the beginning of February, and are quickly 

 followed by a small but conspicuous group. The yellow 

 aconite is the earliest garden blossom, often thrusting 

 through the soil in mild seasons by New Year's Day. It is 

 not a native British plant, but here and there has become 

 fully acclimatised, and has taken its place among wild 

 flowers. 



The snowdrop follows it in a fortnight or three weeks' 

 time, and is an even more typical flower of the earliest 

 spring days that are slipped in between the coldest and 

 bleakest spells of winter weather. It is very true of the 

 English climate that 'as the days lengthen, so the frosts 

 strengthen ' ; and the courage of the snowdrop in flowering 

 under the coldest skies of the year makes it as attractive as 

 its graceful purity. Its snow-white petals tipped with lurk- 

 ing green are a beautifully appropriate symbol of the renas- 

 cence of vegetation among the winter's frost and snow ; and 

 the whiteness of the snowdrop has more than a merely 



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