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and roughness even now, and the edgings of 
the beech leaves are delicate in their newness. 
The promise of harshness is already plainly 
written on the elm leaves, like elements of 
character easily read in a child, and maturity 
will presently give them the rasping stiffness of 
midsummer. The end leaves are mere coils of 
green, so tender that they cannot be untwisted 
without injury, yet in a few days at most 
Mother Nature's touch will have unwound them 
easily and naturally. 
Notwithstanding chilly winds and drifting 
clouds and frequent dashes of rain, Nature is 
unusually busy these days, though less seems 
to be accomplished than in a like time later in 
the spring. But that more rapid development 
is made possible only by the preparation now. 
The month is one of beginnings and promise, 
and nowhere will one feel this more than in a 
walk through the woods. Here, there and 
everywhere the tender green is peeping forth 
from under dead leaves as well as from branches 
erstwhile bare. As one notes the activity of 
each tree and herb, he almost imagines he 
hears a bustle of preparation, and the hurry 
and excitement of those anxious first attempts; 
but, save now and then the snap of a bursting 
bud, so low that one must needs have sharp 
ears indeed to hear it, the plants and trees 
seem to do their work in silence. However, it 
is doubtless only seeming. Were our ears 
sharper and our sense of sound more delicate, 
we might hear a hundred sounds of busy life 
and bustling rivalry in these April woods that 
now fall unnoticed on the air. 
Nature is always full of surprises, but rarely 
more so than on an April day. One goes ex- 
pecting much in an indefinite way, and he is to 
be pitied who is so unfortunate as to find less 
than he expected. Usually it is quite the re- 
verse. Surprises crowd inateverystep. Even 
the old rambler, familiar with Nature’s ways 
and habits, will meet unexpected things at 
every turn, and if the occasional visitor to the 
woods does not, it is usually because his 
powers of observation are not sufficiently de- 
veloped, for one must watch closely if he would 
see half the subtle workings of Nature in the 
April woods. What genuine pleasure there is 
in an unexpected find! Perhaps it may be 
NATURE'S REALM. 
only a bunch of wild phlox a week earlier than 
its sisters and cousins and slightly pale under 
the gray skies but as sweetly fragrant as ever, 
or a new phase of activity hitherto unnoticed, 
or some little puzzle worked out in wondrous 
simple fashion right before his eyes. A peep. 
under the dead leaves is never unrewarded. 
Beneath that moist, warm coverlet, charming 
transformations are always going on. A 
winged maple seed has found a lodgment 
there, and with wings still strong but useless, | 
has put out rootlets and started a single sprout 
upward. Or some crisp white stem of a mis- 
guided trillium will be found lifting the leaves. 
by main force in its struggle to reach the light. 
Where the bed of leaves is thinner flower buds 
are starting that in a month, or possibly in a 
few days, for hours often work wonders with 
spring flowers, will begin to open and make - 
the joy of Nature complete in full bloom. 
The spring beauty (Clayfonia virginica), . 
with its pink and white, is lighting up the - 
rooty banks and grassy plots everywhere. It 
is always a surprise to me that this flower 
should so greatly exceed all others in number 
in the early spring time. For days, sometimes . 
for weeks, in the localities with which I am. 
most familiar (Ohio), it is almost without rivals. . 
What talisman does it possess that enables it 
to so outnumber and outshine all others in 
these April woods? Doubtless the small, deep . 
tuber from which it springs, in part explains its 
abundance, but why it should be more common 
than toothwort (Dentaria laciniata), hepatica 
(HZ. triloba), early crowfoot (Ranunculus fas- 
ciculus) or marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), | 
all of which have root stocks, is hard to dis- 
cover. Hepatica is the only one of those - 
named that approaches rivalry, and it only in 
choice localities. Later the many varieties . 
of violet equal it in abundance, but, as they 
outnumber it in species ten to one, they ought 
to do so. In the April woods, however, it is 
only in forward seasons that the spring beauty 
does not exceed all other flowers in number, 
Its very abundance makes it less esteemed, it 
seems to me, though its pink cheer adds a 
brightness to the landscane that greatly en- 
hances the beauty of the woods in these gray ; 
and brooding days. 
