163 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



life. Snowdrops which had been hidden 

 under the snow were found in full bloom 

 when it melted. One of the most character- 

 istic flowers of March is the merry dancing 

 daffadil (Narcissus pseudo-narcissus). 



" Daffodils 



That come before the swallow dare, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty." 



The daffodil is remarkable for the peculiar 

 appendage forming a coronna, or crown, to 

 its gaudy colored perianth. In the sweet 

 narcissus and jonquil, so extensively grown 

 for their fragrance and delicate beauty, the 

 coronna is usually of a very decidedly dif- 

 ferent color to the rest of the flower, standing 

 out like a brilliant chrome or carmine cup in 

 a pure snow-white salver. The same ap- 

 pendage may be seen in the pink and catchfly 

 family, and in a modified form in the com- 

 mon cowslip. In lanes and hedgerows 

 hidden amongst last year's leaves and herb- 

 age, may be found the sweet violet (Viola 

 odorata ), emblem of retiring modesty. Its 

 pale blue or white flowers, drooping on their 

 slender stalks, are so inconspicuous, that 

 they would be difficult to detect, but so 

 powerful is their fragrance that they may be 

 discovered by their scent alone. Of all our 

 British violets, many of which have showy 

 conspicuous flowers, with beauty of form and 

 gorgeous coloring, fascinating to the eye, as 

 the common garden pansy, yet the sweet 

 violet is the only one endowed with perfume. 

 In waste places, railway embankments, and 

 fallow fields, especially where the soil is 

 clayey, the bright yellow flowers of coltsfoot 

 (Tussilago farfara J shine like golden stars on 

 the bosom of the bare brown earth. The 

 flowers appear long before the leaves, and 

 are borne singly on the top of scaly cottony 

 stems, it is curious to observe how at first 

 the unexpanded flower buds are bent and 

 nodding. As the flowers open they become 

 erect, and unbosom thsmselves to the sun's 

 rays, closing again at night. After they are 

 fertilised they again droop, the infant seeds 

 being carefully shielded from the rain, by 



the closely pressed scales of the involucre 

 till they have attained maturity, when the 

 I flower stalks again become erect, the involu- 

 ; cral scales fall back, and the ripe seeds are 

 freely exposed to the winds to be lightly 

 j wafted on feathery wings like thistle down to 

 I distant habitats. A closely allied plant, the 

 | butter bur (Pctasitcs vulgaris), the gigantic 

 leaves of which, the largest of any British 

 plant, are so conspicuous in summer, and 

 familiar to every schoolboy as wild rhubarb, 

 ma3' now be found in flower by stream sides, 

 and river banks, 



As a contrast to this, one of the neatest and 

 most diminutive of our common plants, the 

 little spring whitlow grass (Draba vcrna) is 

 now in bloom. It loves to grow on dry bare 

 natural pastures, on the tops of old walls, or 

 where the rocks break through the scanty 

 soil, In some districts it is exceedingly 

 abundant, whitening the ground with its in- 

 numerable flowers. In other places, as my 

 own immediate neighbourhood, it is scarcely 

 to be found at all. It grows with a rosette 

 of leaves spreading on the ground, from 

 which rises a leafless stalk, bearing numerous 

 small pure white cross-shaped flowers. 

 Luxuriant specimens, with a straggly spread- 

 ing growth, often attain a considerable size, 

 but I have frequently seen perfect shapely 

 plants not an inch in height, and the whole 

 specimen, root with its adherent ball of earth, 

 leaves, stem, and flowers, stand comfortably 

 on a threepenny piece, one of nature's 

 miniature masterpieces. 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



By J. E. Robsox ; with figures from life by 

 S. L. Mosley. 



(Assisted by Contributors to the Y. N.) 



Genus II. — Erebia, Bois- 



" Erebia, Dal., Ereb'ia, Erebus, the region 

 of darkness ; from the dark colors of the 

 genus." — A.L. 



