20 THE CANADIAN EHODOEA. 



ments, and the projecting style, resemble tufts of colored 

 silken fringe. The Ehodora is from two to six feet 

 in height, and is one of the most conspicuous orna- 

 ments of wet, bushy pastures in this part of the country. 

 It is the last in the train of the delicate flowers of 

 spring, and by its glowing hues indicates the coming of 

 a brighter vegetation. When other shrubs of different 

 species are only half covered with foHage, the Ehodora 

 spreads out its flowers upon the surface of the variegated 

 ground, in plats and clumps of irregular sizes, and sheds 

 a checkered glow of crimson over whole acres of moor. 

 The poets have said but little of this flower because it 

 wants individuality. We look upon the blossoms of the 

 Ehodora as we look upon the crimsoned clouds, admiring 

 their general glow, not the cast of single flowers. But 

 there is something very poetical in the rosy wreaths it 

 affixes to the brows of Nature, still pallid with the long 

 confinement of winter. 



