AN ALPINE SPRING. 185 



of winter ; and the disease, or rot, is continued 

 from the dead to the living part. 



Again, in the Alps, the plant, under the snow, 

 is prevented from growing till the snow melts 

 and the warm winds come; but in our cli- 

 mate, it happens often in the winter, and in the 

 early part of spring, that a few fine days will 

 cause the plant to grow before its time ; then 

 frosts return, check, and sometimes even kill 

 the opening buds, which were reserved for the 

 great effort of nature to be made in spring; the 

 consequence is, that the plant either dies, or 

 lingers in a poor miserable state of existence, 

 scarcely able to make leaves again to keep it 

 alive, far less to throw up flowers. Yet the 

 same plant, in its native Alps, secure under its 

 snow mantle, reposes throughout the cold, till 

 warmed by the sun, which at once melts the 

 snow and calls it into life and bloom in a few 

 Q 



