170 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



the hepatica, which I found on April 4. The arbu- 

 tus and the dicentra appeared on the 10th, and 

 the coltsfoot — which, however, is an importation 

 — about the same time. The bloodroot, claytonia, 

 saxifrage, and anemone were in bloom on the 17th, 

 and I found the first blue violet and the great 

 spurred violet on the 19th (saw the little violet- 

 colored butterfly dancing about the woods the same 

 day). I plucked my ih'st dandelion on a meadow 

 slope on the 23d, and in the woods, protected by a 

 high ledge, my first trillium. During the month 

 at least twenty native shrubs and wild flowers 

 bloomed in my vicinity, which is an unusual show- 

 ing for April. 



There are many things left for May, but nothing 

 fairer, if as fair, as the first flower, the hepatica. 

 I find I have never admired this little firstling half 

 enough. When at the maturity of its charms, it 

 is certainly the gem of the woods. What an indi- 

 viduality it has! No two clusters alike; all shades 

 and sizes; some are snow-white, some pale pink, 

 with just a tinge of violet, some deep purple, others 

 the purest blue, others blue touched with lilac. A 

 solitary blue-purple one, fully expanded and rising 

 over the brown leaves or the green moss, its cluster 

 of minute anthers showing like a group of pale stars 

 on its little firmament, is enough to arrest and hold 

 the dullest eye. Then, as I have elsewhere stated, 

 there are individual hepaticas, or individual fami- 

 lies among them, that are sweet-scented. The gift 

 seems as capricious as the gift of genius in families. 



