226 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



rosy glow, this is reduced to cnished-raspberry color 

 as it fades away on the wooded slopes beneath, and 

 down in the deep ravines is a whitish, violet-ultra- 

 marine shadow too soft to suggest in the remotest 

 way the crudeness of true purple. 



In broad daylight the flower-decked meadows 

 covered ■with tall, ripe grass are seldom green ; in- 

 stead, we have bufE, yellow, yellow-green, salmon- 

 pink, whitish pink, and shadowy lilac again. In 

 early June the golden-green patches of buttercups 

 resemble the colors on the humming bird's back. 

 In later June masses of ox-eye daisies throw a dainty 

 pinkish white tint over the grass, and in July the 

 wild Canada lily embroiders it with a powdered pat- 

 tern in tawny yellow. But I never see any brown 

 or gray on the meadow ; it is always brimful of 

 color, from the glare of light on the white daisies 

 to the lilac shadows of the tall, graceful elms. Even 

 in winter, when it is covered with a mantle of snow, 

 it is still rich in color, for its borders are set with 

 the almost vivid red stems of the red osier {Corn its 

 stolonifera), its pure white is accented by the irides- 

 cent blue-black of half a dozen stray crows ; and best 

 of all, just before the sun sets (however freezingly 

 cold the effect may be), the white is tinged with yel- 

 low, and the broad shadow of the opposite hill which 

 is creeping over it is intensely purple — exactly the 



