Central Park 
Temple, I feel that I have rendered a slight public service 
in putting a stop to this periodical misinformation and 
almost profanation. 
Scarcely has the yulan’s early beauty faded, when 
masses of bright yellow are seen in all directions in the Park 
—it is the forsythia in bloom, perfectly leafless, like the 
magnolia ; and in the evolution of plant-life what strange 
shock could have struck nature, and reversed her uni- 
versal dictum of ‘“ first the blade, then the ear, then the 
full corn in the ear’’? But we are deeply grateful for the 
occasional anti-climax that she allows, for it lengthens 
considerably the flowering period ; and the hearty way 
in which she showers the earliest spring flowers upon us, 
from yulan to violet, shows that she is no cold, ‘‘ imper- 
sonal force,’’ but a cheery, motherly dame, that takes 
this way of smiling upon her children in the morning of 
the year, and we bless her for it. 
The forsythia is probably the best early flowering 
shrub now in cultivation; hardy, and a most profuse 
bloomer. ‘There are three species in the Park, two erect, 
the other drooping; in some situations the last is more 
decorative, but its flowers are not so abundant as in the 
others. The specific name of the principal variety is 
happily chosen, for its dark fresh foliage is truly zr- 
zdissima until the middle of November. 
April might well be called the golden month, the sun 
has imaged itself so multitudinously in the early inflores- 
cence of tree and shrub and vine. On April 1st the 
beautiful cornelian cherry was in full bloom. This 
European shrub, or low tree, ought to be more widely 
cultivated for its early brilliant display. There aresome 
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