THE ANEMONE 
147 
The roots of this plant are so full of fibres that they 
by tlreir interlacings form a complete matwork beneath the 
surface of the earth, which extends all over the wood that 
they frequent. The wood anemone grows very far north, 
and is as common in the woods of North America as in 
those of our own land. 
Linnaeus observed that the wood anemone expanded in 
Sweden at the same time as the swallow returned from 
its migration, and that the marsh marigold bloomed when 
the cuckoo's note commenced. The same circumstances 
have been remarked in this country by a British naturalist. 
Country children call by the name of cuckoo-flower not 
only the wood anemone, but the cardamine, and several 
other spring flowers. With them spring and the cuckoo 
stand in intimate connection. 
“ When skies are blue, 
Then comes the cuckoo,” 
says their rude rhyme ; and all the winter rains wait only 
the arrival of the cuckoo to give way to clear sunshine. 
A naturalist who took an annual account of the days 
on which various flowers came into bloom in spring, found 
that the wood anemone never blossomed earlier than 
March i6th, and never later than April 22nd. The ob- 
servations of this naturalist were made each spring during 
thirty years. All agree as to the beauty of the wild ane- 
mone ; ail are prepared to utter its praises. Some persons 
ran also discover in it a very pleasant odour; while others 
deny that it possesses any. 
It seems singular that an odour should be perceptible 
to one person, and imperceptible to another who is pos- 
sessed of an equally acute sense of smelling; yet it is 
certain that one person can detect the perfume existing in 
one flower, while another is acutely alive to that of a 
different one, and cannot distinguish this. Of course, the 
lavender, rose, myrtle, and plants diffusing a powerful 
fragrance^ are smelt by every person ; but many accus- 
tomed to walk daily beneath the lime-trees are incapable 
of perceiving their scent, and lose the regale which they 
present to the many ; and the same may be said of various 
delicately-scented blossoms. 
