274 F'LASHLKiHTS OX XATIKE 



t()<fetlK'r. The plant docs that intentionally. It is 

 a slow and <^radual llowerci". The reason is plain. 

 Our winter and spring are proverbially uncertain. 

 The hush does not want to put all its ei^^s into one 

 basket. Sonietinics, in doubtful weather, a few 

 of the buds develop up to the stai^e shown in 

 No. 8, and are just ready to open. Then comes 

 a frost, a killini^ frost, and nips them in the bud, 

 more literally than we often mean when we use 

 that familiar metaphor. In such cases, you will 

 sometimes lind the more advanced flowers are 

 killed off and never develop further. But look 

 behind them in No. 8, and you will see that the 

 bush holds in reserve a number of younger buds, 

 ai^ainst this very contingency. Thev are wrapped 

 up tii^ht in their warm brown overcoats, and thev 

 keep one another warm as they neslle aj^ainst the 

 stem ; so that however sharp the frost, thev seldom 

 suffer, in Enj^land at any rate. Beyond the Rhine, 

 where the winters are severer, both buds and folia^^e 

 would be nipped by the east wind ; and so the 

 smaller gorse is confined to the portion of Europe 

 west of the Khineland, while even the i^reater kind 

 cannot live in Russia. To eastward its place is 

 taken by hardier shrubs, which have still more 

 special metliods of protection against the severe 

 weather. In Western Europe, on the other hand, 

 the buds are so arran^^ed that in spite of frost we 

 get a constant succession of gorse-blossoms from 

 November to May or June, when the running is 

 taken up by the smaller summer species. Thus 

 the bees are never deprived of gorse-blossom. 



