SPRING FLOWERS 



EVERY observer will admit that there is a certain 

 regularity in the succession of flowers in the course 

 of the year. Most of them have their times of ap- 

 pearing, just as the birds have. To find a foxglove or a 

 viper's bugloss blossoming in early Spring, or wood- 

 anemones and wild hyacinths in late Summer, would surprise 

 us as much as to see a full-grown cuckoo in Autumn. It is 

 interesting to try to analyse the order of this seasonal 

 procession or pageant, though we may not be able to do 

 so with much success. 



Perhaps we may arrange the early Spring flowers in 

 four groups. There are not a few, such as willow, hazel, 

 alder, dog's mercury, and so on, that have very little in 

 the way of decorative parts. In many cases they are 

 practically reduced to the essentials stamens and carpels. 

 There are relatively few flower- visit ing insects at this time 

 of year, and a large proportion of the earliest flowers are 

 pollinated by the wind. In a second group we may rank 

 those, like the Hellebores, that have their petals and sepals 

 (or perianth parts) of a greenish colour that is to say, 

 not very far removed from the normal green-leaf type. 

 Thirdly, there is a noteworthy group of early Spring 

 flowers that are white. The wood-anemones, which rise in 

 the wood from amid the withered leaves and toss in the wind 

 like foam-balls, illustrate this type, and snowdrops, wood- 

 sorrel, and sloe-blossom immediately rise in the mind. 



There is such a thing as white flower-pigment (antholeucin), 



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