THE WOODLAND IN MARCH 285 



and the close study of the wild life through each 

 period of the year — is considerably enhanced if 

 the observer makes a point of seeing Nature under 

 as many aspects as possible : it is only by rambling 

 continually throughout the duller months that one 

 can appreciate to the full the advent of Spring 

 and then the richness of Summer. 



The woodland in March — that is, if the weather 

 be at all balmy, such as the morning of which I 

 write — gives evidence on every side of the ap- 

 proach of Spring. On March 2 Dog's Mercury 

 was in flower, the Green Hellebore was well above 

 ground and the flower-buds prominent: both 

 these are two of the earliest of the woodland's 

 Spring flowers; whilst several days previously 

 the delicate little red tufts on the Nut Hazel — 

 known to the student as the pistillate flowers — 

 were observable. I do not ever remember seeing 

 the male blossom of the Hazel under more de- 

 lightful conditions than on the aforesaid morning 

 in early March. The catkins, loaded with golden 

 pollen, as seen against the dark and leafless trees 

 and shrubs of the woodland — and more especially 

 where a flood of sunlight caught them — ^were 

 never more appreciated, and the more so because 

 I had been watching those " Lambs' Tails " when 

 they were mere little notches, hardly noticeable 

 to the casual observer. 



How the balmy Spring air seems to have set 



