130 THE FLOWERS OF EARLY SPRING. 
and hood-shaped leaves, with their curious palmate variety ; 
rotundifolia, with yellow flowers and shiny leaves; and on 
the hillsides and in the pastures the widely varying sagittata. 
Claytonia Virginica, well named Spring Beauty, must not 
be neglected in its moist and generally shady bed. 
Along streams in open woodlands, we may find the Spring 
Cress ( Outen rhomboidea), with large, white flowers; 
and just shooting up its green stalk, its first cousin the Win- 
ter Cress (Barbarea vulgaris). 
Nor should the floral efforts of trees and shrubs be disre- 
garded. Among the earliest indications of spring the Hazel- 
nut (Corylus rostrata) shakes its long catkins along the 
roadsides, before any signs of swelling leaf-buds are visible, 
while the Willows (Salix), whose name is legion, begin to 
burst their warm wintry covering. The Savin (Juniperus 
Virginiana) is covered with its curious little flowers. The 
Hemlock (Abies Canadensis) is early in flower, as also the 
American Yew (Taxus baccata). All these require close 
examination to detect their inflorescence, but well repay it- 
The two maples, Acer dasycarpum (the Silver Maple) and 
Acer rubrum (the Red Maple), hang out their showy pen- 
dants very early. The Sweet Gale (Myrica Gale), along 
the edges of swamps, and the Sweet Fern ( Comptonia asple 
nifolia), whose dried leaves are the basis of juvenile at- 
tempts at smoking, are now in flower; and Dirca palustris, 
well named Leather-wood from the marvellous toughness of 
its bark, such that it is frequently used in default of leather 
or twine in repairing broken harnesses or sleds, hangs out 
its little yellow bells in advance of any leaves. 
We close the list with the fragrant Sassafras (S. ofici- 
nale), well known by its aromatic bark and curiously lobed 
leaves, not so well by its early clusters of yellow flowers, 
somewhat resembling those of the Sugar-maple; and the 
‘Spice-wood, or Fevr hud (Benzoin odoriferum), also highly 
aromatic, and possessing, like the Sassafras, medicinal value 
as an aromatic stimulant. Such are the earliest flowers, 


