92 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
warm day from the very beginning of winter, 
and the skunk cabbage , buds being developed 
and actually flowering sometimes in the winter, 
and the sap flowing in the maples on some days 
in midwinter, and perhaps some cress growing 
a little (?), certainly some pads, and various 
naturalized garden weeds steadily growing, if 
not blooming, and apple buds sometimes ex¬ 
panding. Thus much of vegetable life, or mo¬ 
tion, or growth, is to be detected every winter. 
There is something of spring in all seasons. 
There is a large class which is evergreen in its 
radical leaves, which make such a show as soon 
as the snow goes off that many take them to be 
a new growth of the spring. In a pool I no¬ 
tice that the crowfoot (buttercup) leaves which 
are at the bottom of the water stand up and 
are much more advanced than those two feet 
off in the air, for there they receive warmth 
from the sun, while they are sheltered from 
cold winds. Nowadays we separate the warmth 
of the sun from the cold of the wind, and ob¬ 
serve that the cold does not pervade all places, 
but being due to strong northwest winds, if we 
get into some sunny and sheltered nook where 
they do not penetrate, we quite forget how cold 
it is elsewhere. .... I meet some Indians just 
camped on Brister’s Hill. As usual, they are 
chiefly concerned to find where black ash grows 
