A BUNCH OF HERBS 187 



toss in the breeze, and they would not he sweet- 

 scented like the daffodils. 



It is to he rememheied, too, that in the moister 

 atmosphere of England the same amount of fragrance 

 would he much more noticeable than with us. 

 Think how our sweet bay, or our pink azalea, or 

 our white alder, to which they have nothing that 

 corresponds, would perfume that heavy, vapor-laden 

 air! 



In the woods and groves in England, the wild 

 hyacinth grows very abundantly in spring, and in 

 places the air is loaded with its fragrance. In our 

 woods a species of dicentra, commonly called squir- 

 rel corn, has nearly the same perfume, and its 

 racemes of nodding whitish flowers, tinged with 

 red, are quite as pleasing to the eye, but it is a 

 shyer, less abundant plant. When our children go 

 to the fields in April and May, they can bring home 

 no wild flowers as pleasing as the sweet English 

 violet, and cowslip, and yellow daffodil, and wall- 

 flower; and, when British children go to the woods 

 at the same season, they can load their hands and 

 baskets with nothing that compares with our trail- 

 ing arbutus, or, later in the season, with our azaleas; 

 and, when their boys go fishing or boating in sum- 

 mer, they can wreathe themselves with nothing 

 that approaches our pond-lily. 



There are upward of thirty species of fragrant 

 native wild flowers and flowering shrubs and trees 

 in New England and New York, and, no doubt, 

 many more in the South and West. My list is as 

 follows : — ■ 



