34 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



be sure, is why Infinite Goodness has kept out of 

 man's sight, so long as he is an inhabitant of this 

 present' world, all those grand and lovely mysteries 

 and ultimate facts of which our actual knowledge is 

 only the apparel. 



April is the period when the vital energy of seeds 

 is, in temperate countries, most vigorously called 

 forth. Then the gardener deposits in the soil those 

 copious handfuls which in a -few weeks will show 

 themselves in wealth of young green vegetables, and 

 incipient flowers. Then, as if at the sound of a 

 trumpet, innumerable germs of the wildings of the 

 field and hedgerow awake to life, and beautiful is the 

 spectacle after a few days of sunny warmth, when the 

 first heralds of the season come crowding out of the 

 dark ground. Many of our little spring flowers run 

 through the whole history of life before spring has 

 even commenced with many of the larger and tardy 

 kinds. Pretty little white-flowered cresses, that do 

 not care to grow taller than the breadth of one's hand, 

 come out m the broad acres of the cornfields in abso- 

 lute myriads ; others peep out of the chinks and crev- 

 ices of old walls, opening their square and pearly 

 blossoms, and ripening their miniature seed-pods, 

 while the stately plants in the garden are scarcely 

 aroused. Every season is, in fact, an epitome of all 

 seasons ; and in a single afternoon's walk, when nature 

 is active, the history of the whole year is found enacted 



