HANDFUL VI. 



" April Bmilea, and April tears, 

 Welcome them tpgether." 



With our Fifbli Handful of "Wayside Weeds/' and 

 real veritable weeds most of tliem were, we also 

 said adieu to the plants with netted veiaed leaves. 

 As we have already remarked^ in these our tempe- 

 rate zones, the netted leaf- veins characterize by far 

 the largest proportion of our vegetable products, 

 and, excludirig the cereal and pasture grasses, by 

 far the most important. They have accordingly 

 engrossed the lion's share of these light sketches 

 of Flora's kingdom ; that they do not, however, 

 monopolize all the beauty, our next Handful, of 

 their straight-veined relatives folly testifies. Nay, 

 so much beauty do we find in the collection, that 

 we expect our readers wiU demur at the word weeds 

 at aU. Weeds or flowers, whichever they be, they 

 are probably more familiar to the town, dweller than 

 many more common flowerets; the most unmiti- 

 gated townsman knows the snowdrop, the crocus, the 

 hyaciath, the tulip, and the lily of the valley, those 



