Evening journal., 1900-04-06
FAIR ApRIL's FLOWERS

SOME OF THE EARLY EXHIBITS
IN NATURES SPRING OPEN
ING.
When harsh March weather is past
and gone and April's sunny showers
give glad promise OF another Summer
every plant that grows makes ready its
apparel of the coming season. And what
a vast stir there is, TO be surel Every
seed that has been waiting impatiently
since Autumn, every shrub that should
in virtue Of its age take Spring philo-
sophically-only it doesnt-all Of these
commence to swell and bud and put
forth their leaves. Positively. from the
rapidity with which some Of these wood
denizens make their appearance in new
splendor. il would seem as though
there were a premium put ON haste. as If
there were an eclat to be gotten from
an early Spring opening" in the vege-
table world, just as among milliners.
On one day you have bleak, bare Win
ter earth and on the next-prestoi-a
thousand ffowerets are dancing conf
IDENTIFY in the weak sunlight.
1t would be hard to tell which Is the
earliest species to blossom forth. So
many different kinds are there, and so
much depends on advantage In posi-
tion-on the protection afforded by a
hillside, on the warmth from a nearby
spring-that there is no accurte order
Of succession, writes Frank Peyton IN
the Baltimore Sun. But among the
first come the skunk cabbage. One OF
our earliest signs Of Spring is the queer
irregularly blotched flower OF this
plant. II exactly resembles & minia-
ture monks-cowl peering from the sur.
face Of the earth in the moist wood
land where 1t grows. The bright green
leaves, whose shape and odor give the
plant its name, appear a few days later
sprouting up around the flower.
A far more beautiful and pleasant
acquaintance is the blood-root. 1t.
white blossoms, with king-gold center
are known to all who have sought {
pluck them only TO find that the petal:
shatter with the slightest ill-usage, ant
that the Juice of the stem stains the
hands a bright orange Nature car
give no stronger indications that this
subject of hers is to be admired in its
native haunts and left undisturbed. But
there grow others not so tender TIL,
quaint, fuzzy little liver-wort is seat
tered all through the woodland, and al
this season OF the year the light blue oi
cream-colored or even pinky flowers
and trilobed leathery leaves OF the
plant are dear to every rambler. Oh
perchanee the find may be a colony o.
the Observation-Disclosures delicate adven-
turer of the new year. Every wind thai
blows sets the pink-tinted blossoms
quivering on their fragile stalks as il
in dread OF a frosty death.
Indeed. a frosty death is an only toe
common occurrence. Truly, the good
die young. No one ever saw a frozen
skunk k-cabbage-such louts thrive
lusty and malodorous-but who has
not gone into the Wintry woods, his
mind set on arbutus, and parted the
dead leaves only to find the flowers un.
derneath, that should have been star
like, waxy and fragrant. brown and
withered?-Thes spice-bush also. which
perfumes the thickets with its yellow
blossoming twigs. is another frequent
sufferer-and the dog-tooth violet. oh
| could name only too many overconh.
dent species that pay bitterly for theil
rashnessi
Speaking Of the dog-tooth violet, mos
people are not aware that the nodding