APRIL SIGNS. 31 
Not so well known nor so much sought for, but 
equally attractive, is the hepatica, of which the pale 
blue or white blossoms peering among the tri-lobed 
downy leaves are the prize of the searcher for wood- 
land beauties. Of evanescent beauty, dropping its 
two sepals before the petals are fully expanded, and 
dropping its petals while you are plucking it, the white- 
flowered, yellow-stamened bloodroot by many a brook- 
side is interwoven as one more thread into the living 
garment of the Deity. Not many of our towns can 
boast of more than two or three localities for finding all 
of these. 
In the deep woods it may be that we shall find 
late in April one of our rare shrubs, which is much 
more abundant further north, the leatherwood (Diérca 
palustris, L.). Its clusters of small yellow flowers 
precede the leaves, so that they are rarely seen except 
by those who are seeking for them. The wood of 
this shrub is brittle, but the bark is exceedingly tough. 
Leatherbark would be a more appropriate common 
name. While trying to find it once near where it had 
been found before, we came upon a decaying stump 
which was all covered with the delicate green of one of 
our most graceful little mosses (Tetraphis pellucida, 
Hedw.). Close by was the early yellow violet, whose 
praise Bryant sang, probably at Cummington, in the 
interval between the composition of those two matchless 
