62 WOOD AND GARDEN 



flower. This plant also has a pleasant scent in the 

 mass, difficult to localise, but coming in whiffs as it 

 will. 



The snowy Mespilus {Amelanchier) shows like puffs 

 of smoke among the firs and birches, full of its milk- 

 white, cherry-like, bloom — a true woodland shrub or 

 small tree. It loves to grow in a thicket of other 

 trees, and to fling its graceful sprays about through 

 their branches. It is a doubtful native, but naturalised 

 and plentiful in the neighbouring woods. As seen' in 

 gardens, it is usually a neat little tree of shapely form, 

 but it is more beautiful when growing at its own will 

 in the high woods. 



Marshy hollows in the valleys are brilliant with 

 Marsh Marigold {Galtha palustris) ; damp meadows 

 have them in plenty, but they are largest and hand- 

 somest in the alder-swamps of our valley bottoms, 

 where their great luscious clumps rise out of pools of 

 black mud and water. 



Adonis vcrnalis is one of the brightest flowers of the 

 middle of April, the flowers looking large for the size 

 of the plant. The bright-yellow, mostly eight-petp,lled, 

 blooms are comfortably seated in dense, fennel-like 

 masses of foliage. It makes strong tufts, that are the 

 better for division every four years. The spring Bitter- 

 vetch {Orobus vernus) blooms at the same time, a re- 

 markably clean-looking plant, with its cheerful red and 

 purple blossom and handsomely divided leaves. It is 

 one of the toughest of plants to divide, the mass of 



