SIBERIAN SQUILL. 



TINT oJ; blue iu field or garden 

 exercises a mysterious iiiilucuee, 

 111 the later days of spring, when 

 along the margins of woods and 

 eoppices our -woodland squill, Scilla 

 nntaiiii, also known as llyaciidkus 

 luiii scnpf/is, makes a fringe of 

 heavenly lilue, we experience a 

 strange thrill of emotion, either 

 because the colour has some 

 spiritual import that the soul un- 

 derstands, or because the assiu'- 

 aucG it gives of the constancy 

 of the seasons re-establishes the 

 confidence that late frosts and easf 

 winds had well-nigh shattered. 

 And yet the influence, whate\'er its ultimate cause, can 

 scarcely be the result of any special awakening j^eeuliar tc 

 the season of the nodding squill, because it comes upon us 

 again as the summer opens and the blue speedwell appears 

 on the banks ; and again, later on, when the harebells 

 appear ; and perhaps it is not altogether wanting when the 

 blue of the wolf's-bane is seen upon the gravelly sloj^es. 

 and the delphiniums and aconites ap2)ear in the gardens. 



