EDITORIAL. 
Although spring, according to the almanac, does not begin 
until some days after the date of this number of the Botanist,, in 
all but the most northern of the Northern States, indications of 
the approach of a milder season have already begun tO' multiply. 
It is a rare season when the maples, elms, alders and willows are 
not showing bloom as far north as New York by the middle of 
March, and if we are unwilling to class these among legitimate 
wild flowers, a search along the sunny fence-rows is pretty sure 
to be rewarded by a few venturesome blossoms of such early 
species as the hepatica, dandelion, bluet and anemone. April 
brings the trailing arbutus, the blood root, the spring cress and a 
few others, and after April the host is too great to number. 
In lands where winter serves only as a slight check tO' the 
blooming season the inhabitants appear not tO' possess the desire 
to hasten forth to pluck the firstlings of the year that animates 
those in climes where winter is more rigorous and where these 
early blosoms in addition to their grace and beauty bear the first 
real promises of a milder season. That it is something more 
than the beauty of the flowers which attracts us to- these early 
specimens may be seen in the fact that those who' rarely go afield 
for flowers in midsummer may be found scouring the thickets and 
hillsides at arbutus-tide. 
It may be predicted with something like certainty, that among 
the first of our wild flowers to be exterminated, will be such of 
these early blossoms as have not a tenacious hold upon life. In 
the vicinity of cities and towns the arbutus is already doomed, and 
the bloodroot and Dutchman's breeches seems likely to share 
the same fate, but it may be doubted whether the adder' s-tongue, 
spring beauty and violet will give up so easily. It is nearly im- 
possible to pull up entire a blooming adder' s-tongue, and the stems 
of the spring beauty are usually too lightly attached to the flat 
tuber to bring it with them when pulled from the soil. Num- 
