Flowers and Gardens 



just thicken in proportion as the sun gains 

 strength, in order that there his rays may- 

 be ever tempered and subdued, and de- 

 prived of their power to injure. And thus 

 in the woods these early spring flowers 

 gain every advantage from their position 

 and time of blooming. The soil at their 

 roots is kept uniformly moist, and they are 

 sheltered, not from necessary light, but 

 only from hurtful extremes of heat and 

 cold. 



The third advantage of this low com- 

 pactness of growth which characterises the 

 early spring is the readiness with which it 

 enables the land to be wrought upon by 

 the weather. In winter there is the utmost 

 possible bareness. The heavy sodden 

 earth must be exposed to be cracked and 

 riven by the frost, after which the air can 

 freely enter and reanimate it. But when 

 frost and snow are at length disappearing 

 the work is only half complete. The 

 country has yet to be ventilated and 

 washed. The earth is still being tem- 

 pered by rapid alternations of heat and 

 cold, the pouring rains and melting snows 

 drench it, and are again dried up by the 

 searching east winds. We can scarcely 

 say that the work is accomplished till the 

 time — 



192 



