APRIL 47 



of the ground, but as the leaves develop, their dull, 

 lurid colouring changes to a full, pale green of a 

 curious texture, quite smooth, and yet absolutely un- 

 reflecting. The dark colouring of the young leaves 

 now only remains as a faint tracery of veining on the 

 backs of the leaves and stalks, and at last dies quite 

 away as the bloom expands. The flower is of a rare 

 and beautiful quality of colour, hard to describe — a 

 rainbow-flower of purple, indigo, full and pale blue, 

 and daintiest lilac, full of infinite variety and inde- 

 scribable charm. The flowers are in terminal clusters, 

 richly filled ; lesser clusters springing from the axils 

 of the last few leaves and joining with the topmost 

 one to form a gracefully drooping head. The lurid 

 colouring of the young leaves is recalled in the flower- 

 stem and calix, and enhances the colour effect of the 

 whole. The flower of the common Dog-tooth Violet 

 is over, but the leaves have grown larger and hand- 

 somer. They look as if, originally of a purplish-red 

 colour, some liquid had been dropped on them, making 

 confluent pools of pale green, lightest at the centre 

 of the drop. The noblest plant of the same family 

 {Erythronium giganteum) is now in flower — a striking 

 and beautiful wood plant, with turn-cap shaped flowers 

 of palest straw-colour, almost white, and large leaves, 

 whose markings are not drop-like as in the more 

 familiar kind, but are arranged in a regular sequence 

 of bold splashings, reminding one of a Maranta. The 

 flowers, single or in pairs, rise on stems a foot or fifteen 



