SUCCESSION OF PLOWEES. 57 



personages present themselves almost one by one, or at most, 

 two by two. 



But in March, the fruit-trees begin to display their rich 

 clothing ; the almond is covered with flowers of a rosy-white, 

 the apricot with white blossoms, the peach with rose-coloured : 

 rear the water, the crowfoot opens its golden tufts; primroses 

 blossom on the banks, and yellow gillyflowers on the walls ; 

 crocuses spring up in the grass, among the white stars of the 

 early daisy, like little lilies, with their yellow corollas, violet, 

 or striped with violet and white; some few violets peep forth 

 from under the dead leaves which fell from the trees in the 

 autumn: then all this disappears as if by the waving of a 

 wand. 



The bluebell opens its violet blue spikes of blossoms, and 

 all the flowers that have preceded it recognise the signal and 

 disappear; their part is played — they will come on again 

 next year for a fresh representation. 



Look at them well, admire their various forms, their fresh 

 or brilliant colours, inhale their various perfumes, you will, 

 perhaps, never see them again; if fortunate, you have, at 

 most, twenty or thirty similar lepresentations to behold. 



But you see them depart without regret — they are re- 

 placed by so many others. In fact, flowers will soon be so 

 numerous it will be impossible to count them; everything 

 blossoms, or seems to blossom — trees, herbs, butterflies ; but 

 each has its day, each has its hour — none come before, none 

 exceed the prescribed moment. 



Spring and summer pass away — the crowd gets thinner : the 

 queen Marguerites, the true flower of autumn, are replaced by 

 the dahlias, the dahlias by the asters, and the asters themselves 

 fade away at the appearance of the Indian chrysanthemums. 

 There is a variety of chrysanthemums with small yellow 

 flowers, which appears the last of all, and closes the gay 

 procession. 



And with every leaf, with every flower, are born and die 

 the insects which inhabit them, and feed upon them, and 

 likewise those which eat these insects themselves : the flowers 

 sow their seeds, which are their eggs ; the insects lay their 

 eggs, which are their seeds; after which the hellebores and 

 the coltsfoot re-bloom, and hatch the insects which belong to 



