The Work Of Nature In The Months.

beautiful blossoms that this time of year affords , although it is true it is a little doubtful if it is a true wild flower , we mean the Snowdrop . Who does not welcome this little harbinger of warmer days in store ? Who is not charmed to see the patches of white blossom , which seem almost like stray snow-flakes lingering after their fellows liave melted and gone 1 One reason , perhaps , why we are the more inclined to welcome its reappearance , is that it is a member of that large Botanical family , that includes so

many of the plants most important to man , such as the palms , the grains , and tho grasses , One great and noticeable feature of this tribe is the parallel veining of the leaves in contradistinction to the branched and cross-graining of such plants as the Daisy , the Ivy , and most of our Trees . Another flower , sometimes found wild , of a similar kind to the Snowdrop , and now beginning to flower , is the Daffodil , the evanesanfc nature of whose blossoms is noticed by Heirick : —

" Fair Daffodils ! We weep to see You fade away so soon " Approaching the more woody classes of vegetation , we find a few early blossoms of the Lesser Periwinkle ; few plants are more beautiful than this , with its rich blue flowers and its glossy green leaves . So cord-like and tough are its trailing stems that its

Botanical name , " Vinca , ' ' has been derived from the Latin m ' . ncio , to bind . The Dutch call it Sinn-Green or " Evergreen . " The Italians call it " The flower of Death " from their custom of binding-down the grassy sods of their graves with its shoots . Although the Lesser Periwinkle is found somewhat frequently in Kent , and in Devonshire often covers large tracts of ground with its foliage and flowers , it is by no means common in all parts of the count y , as it generally affects woodland spots , especially if they should be rendered moist by streams of water . In the country garden this flower is a great favourite : —

" See where the sky-blue periwinkle climbs E ' en to the cottage eaves , and hides the wall , And dairy lattice , with a thousand eyes , Pentagonally formed , to mock the skill Of proud geometers . "

A step higher and we are amongst the shrubs , and should we be passing through a copse , or by the thick-grown hedge of an old rural lane , our eye would doubtless be arrested by the bright glossy evergreen leaves of the Spurge Laurel , which surrounding the extremities of the branches quite leafless as to their lower part , give them somewhat the appearance of a Palm . From the midst of these hang down the yellowishgreen flowers , like so many waxen hells , diffusing a sweet , though faint , perfume . The berries

, which are of a bluish-black colour , are poisonous to everything but birds ; the roots ancl bark are very acrid , but not so intensely so as those of its relative , the Mezereon , which may also be met with wild . A little later on , this Shrub is rendered T < siy beautiful by its purplish-lilac flower , which comes out whilst it is still leafless . Its scarlet berries are highl y poisonous . The hark is used in some countries as a blister , whilst the still more acrid root is employed to cure toothache great care hashowever

; , , . be zeroised in its use , as , if held too long in the mouth , it produces inflammation ; t ' if' ^ 10 ll S k most P ' ts of the plant are used medicinally , they should never he ouched in this way but by experienced hands . Mezereon possesses one excellent | uahty , for its branches yield a good yehow dye . It is a plant widely known , the uT callin S Laureole gentille , the Italians Laureola femina , and the Persians adzaryoun . Another curious and beautiful plant that we may include amongst the tt'ubs is

the Butcher ' s Broom , so called because formerly butchers used its prickly inches to sweep their blocks . The most remarkable feature in this plant is the leaf H * ° f the fl ( Wer > tlle f ° etstalk of which is so buried under the outer coating of the ^ ' > that it presents the remarkable appearance of a flower growing out of the surface of eat Tho blossoms are small and of a yellowish-green colour , and the fertile ones are 2 c