154 
THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
LECTURE VII. 
THE LIFE OF A PRIMROSE. 
WHEN the dreary 
days of winter and 
the early damp 
days of spring 
are passing 
away, and the 
warm bright 
sunshine has 
begun to pour 
down upon the 
grassy paths of 
the wood, who 
does not love to 
go out and bring home 
bouquets of violets, and 
bluebells, and primroses ? We wander from one plant 
to another, picking a flower here and a bud there, as 
they nestle among the green leaves, and we make our 
rooms sweet and gay with the tender and lovely blos- 
soms. But tell me, did you ever stop to think, as you 
added flower after flower to your bouquet, how the 
plants which bear them have been building up their 
green leaves and their fragile buds during the last few 
weeks ? If you had visited the same spot a month be- 
fore, a few of last year's leaves, withered and dead, 
