HAILING FAR SUMMER 



the wood. The lesser celandine is another plant which 

 blooms on the threshold of spring under boughs which May 

 will darken. In the warm south-western counties the 

 children's buttercup is sometimes to be found flowering even 

 in January ; and in February it shows itself in most places 



PRIMROSE, BLUEBELL LEAVES, LESSER CELANDINE, AND DOG'S MERCURY 



on warm banks and in sheltered meadows. Its habit of 

 blossoming on ground overshadowed by later vegetation is 

 seen most strikingly where it grows under the spreading 

 boughs of a lime or sycamore, or other spreading deciduous 

 tree in a cattle-pasture. All through the summer the dense 

 foliage keeps the grass scanty beneath it ; and the cattle 

 sheltering in the dog-days trample the last blades away. 

 When early spring comes round, the tree-trunks are sur- 



