66 PEARLS AND PEBBLES. 



and shaded with a purplish cloud in the centre. They 

 are already hiding the old withered and persistently 

 clinging foliage of last year, throwing it off as a worn- 

 out garment. 



Here, late also, is the Spring Beauty (Claytonia Vir- 

 ginica), a frail and delicate flower. Its pink and white > 

 tinted and striped petals hardly look as if they could 

 bear the cold breath of early April, but it is really 

 hardy, and is not generally afraid of frost. This is, 

 however, an exceptional season, or we should have seen 

 the graceful Dog-tooth Violet (Lilium erithroniwm) 

 showing its yellow drooping bells ere this date. 



There is a large bed of these flowers just outside my 

 garden, but they will not condescend to enter within 

 cultivated ground, though I have often tried to coax the 

 obstinate beauties to take root with me. They love 

 their free-born liberty, and will have nothing to do 

 with me and civilized life. They cling to the leaf -mould, 

 and the shade of the maples and beeches, and need the 

 warm coverlet of scarlet and orange leaves the autumn 

 winds spread over them ; and perhaps — who shall deny 

 it ? — they may miss the companionship of grasses and 

 ferns and mosses, or some native wild-flower that 

 mingles its roots and foliage among their own richly 

 spotted leaves. 



The name " Dog-tooth Violet," by which this fair lily 

 is known, is surely a great misnomer. It has no affinity 

 with the violet. The first part of the name has been 



