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THE  FLOWERS  OF  EARLY  SPRING. 
being  destroyed  for  firewood.  Still  another  grove  has  been  dis- 
covered near  Duma,  in  the  western  slope  of  Lebanon,  near  the  one 
discovered  by  Mr.  Tristram  himself.  This  gives  ten  distinct  locali- 
ties in  the  Lebanon,  to  the  south  of  the  originally  discovered 
one,  and  including  it.  Ehrenberg  had  already  discovered  one 
on  the  north  of  that  locality,  and  thence  northwards  the  chain 
is  unexplored  by  voyager  or  naturalist." — The  Amer.  Naturalist^ 
Aprils  1869, /rom  Quarterly  Journ.  of  Sci.,  London. 
THE  FLOWERS  OF  EARLY  SPRING. 
By  Rev.  J.  W.  Chickering,  Jk. 
There  is  perhaps  a  nearly  equal  charm  about  the  notes  of  the 
first  robin,  and  the  sight  of  the  first  Mayflower.  It  will  be  the 
object  of  this  article  to  enumerate,  with  a  few  notes  upon  each, 
some  of  our  earlier  floral  visitors,  in  wood  and  meadow,  in  New 
England. 
The  list  opens,  not  very  attractively,  with  a  plant  well  known 
to  all,  under  the  mal-odorous  name  of  Skunk  Cabbage  {^Symplo- 
carpus  fcetidus),  but  whose  flower  is  by  no  means  so  familiar, 
save  to  the  observing  botanist,  and  even  he  must  be  on  the  alert 
to  obtain  this  first  gift  of  Flora,  in  full  perfection  of  color  and 
aroma.  Early  in  April,  or  even  in  March,  almost  before  the  ice 
is  fairly  melted,  may  be  found  in  low  marshy  ground,  this  flower, 
clumsy  in  form,  repulsive  and  snaky  in  color,  dark  purple,  with 
yellowish  blotches,  and  disgusting  in  odor  ;  soon  to  be  followed 
by  the  clump  of  large  fleshy  leaves,  conspicuous  during  the  rest 
of  the  summer.  Like  Stramonium,  and  most  other  noxious  and 
unsightly  weeds,  it  has  been  tried  as  a  remedy  for  asthma,  and 
with  about  as  much  efiect. 
In  very  pleasing  contrast  comes  next  Epigcea  repens,  or,  as  it 
is  sometimes  miscalled,  Trailing  Arbutus,  better  and  more  ap- 
propriately known  throughout  New  England  as  the  Mayflower. 
This,  among  the  very  earliest,  is  also  the  choicest  gift  that 
Elora  has  in  this  latitude  to  off'er  us,  alike  for  its  beauty  of  form 
and  color,  its  delicious  fragrance,  and  its  charming  habit  of 
peeping  out,  almost  from  the  edge  of  the  retreating  snowdrifts. 
To  find  the  first  bunch  of  Mayflowers  is  the  ambition  of  many  a 
