AND THEIR

ASSOCIATIONS.

FROM THE PRIZE ESSAY ("EXCELSIOR," 1880)

NE of our earliest Spring flowers, if indeed it can be called a flower of Spring more than any other season, is the DAISY. This darling of childhood" is a flower of all times and all places, springing up in the country meadow and on the city lawn alike. Its humble blossoms are the very embodiment of innocence and simplicity. At the approach of night,

"Its pure white petals tipped with pink,
Like blushes on a maiden's cheek,"

modestly folded over its golden heart, but at the approach of day it again raises its protecting petals, to receive the refreshing dew and warm sunshine.

It is from the way it thus unfolds its blossoms at the dawn of day that it derives its

name Daisy (day's-eye), or as Chaucer calls it "eie of daie." Its French name, "Marguerite," signifies "a pearl," and a more apt allusion to its appearance when scattered over the green meadows could not be made. The daisy is pre-eminently a child's flower,

and the weaving of daisy-chains a child's delight; in fact all its associations are of childhood and in

nocence.

But if the Daisy is such a universal favourite, the VIOLET and PRIMROSE equally claim that honour, and of the two the former is perhaps the favourite. All love it; children for its own sake, their elders for its associations. Hid in its own dark leaves, it would often be passed unnoticed were it not for its fragrance. Nestling there in the shady recesses of the woods, it is the very embodiment of modesty. Bound together in its own leaves, it is one of the first flowers offered by the city flower-girl, and many who pass unnoticed the gaudier summer blossoms, love its humble flowers, both on account of its simple beauty and fragrance, and for the remembrances it brings of youthful days. This flower is a great favourite with the poets. Shakespeare mentions it in fourteen different places; he speaks of it as "nodding and blue-veined," and in connection with it mentions the south wind, "that breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour."

Its rival favourite, the PRIMROSE, is one of the earliest spring comers, as its name, "primus," first, signifies. Its beauty is delicate and simple, but, nestled in the soft green moss, peeping from the gnarled roots of the forest trees, or gleaming on sunny banks, its pale yellow blossoms shine like stars against their leafy emerald background.

It is also called" cuckoo-bud," because it arrives with the cuckoo; Crowfoot, because of the fancied resemblance of its leaves to a bird's foot; Gold-knob and Gold-cup, suggestive of its appearance in bud and blossom; and Bassinet, derived from the French, "bassinet," a small basin or skull-cap; besides the local names, Frog's-foot, Baffiner, &c.

In wet meadows, or by the side of rivers, the

SPRING WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS.

151

DAFFODIL may be found. This plant is very charac-ina ugation, end teristic of the Spring, and as it generally grows in great profusion in thickets and damp woods, with s its elegant nodding flowers and vivid colouring,do forms a striking feature of a spring landscape. The 80 "daffe-down-dillie," as Chaucer calls it, has always fo been a great favourite with the poets. Herrick, Shakespeare, and many others, have sung its praises, voll and Wordsworth gives us an exquisite picture of its habits and peculiarities when he says:

has fancifully been said that the azure harebells are the chimes of the bees, and that their merry peals "ring out like the echoes of fairy feet," "at even time for their banqueting."

At the spring season of the year, in shaded woods and hedgerows, we often meet with a curious flower known by the name of ARUM, lords and ladies, or cuckoo-pint. The flowers of this plant are enclosed in a large hooded spathe, but as the season advances this spathe, together with the leaves, dies away, and by the winter nothing is left but a cluster of scarlet berries, which forms a very effective ornament to the hedgerow. The name "lords and ladies" is given to it on account of its leaves, some of which are blotched with dark purple spots, while others are plain green; the blotched ones are the "ladies," and the plain ones the "lords."

Early in the Spring, sometimes as early as March, the LESSER CELANDINE carpets the earth with its glossy kidney-shaped leaves and starry yellow blossoms. This little flower was a great favourite with the poet Wordsworth,' who, often mentions it with love and admiration, and its folded petals are sculptured as an appropriate ornament to his tomb at Grassmere. The lesser celandine is so called on account of its diminutive growth, which distinguishes it from another plant also called the celandine (Chelidonium), and which flowers about the same time, but which attains a height of two feet, and bears cruciform flowers, and has a deeply-cut and very ornamental leaf. Some of the old writers affirm that the swallow uses this plant to recover her young from blindness, hence the name, from "chelidon," a swallow; and that though the very apple of the eye be marred, the mother bird will restore it again by the use of the juice that flows from the flower-stalk. Salisbury. MARY JANE BROWN.

NORAH AND HER ARTIST FRIEND.

AN IRISH SKETCH.

CHAPTER I.

ORAH, Norah, are you coming? Why, what ails the child that she is so long away?" and the speaker, a fine old woman of sixty or thereabouts, shaded her eyes from the sun's glare, and gazed attentively down the road which wound up the hill upon which her pretty little cottage was built. She made a very picturesque sight standing there; a bright scarlet-and-green shawl was thrown carelessly over her shoulders, while her dress of brown linsey was pinned up in such a manner as to show off the dark-green petticoat beneath 10 perfection. She must have been very beautiful in her youth, and though the summer of her life was long past, she still retained many evidences of her former good looks. She was standing thus, the bright colours of her dress thrown into strong relief against the dark background of the cottage, when she suddenly discerned a figure advancing up the lane. One glance was quite sufficient to make it clear that the tall form proceeding towards her did not belong to the absent Norah. But what was that snugly ensconced between the young man's shoulders? Who but Norah, her merry black eyes dancing, and her whole face lit up as she answered some question of her kind conductor's? He was tall and well-made, with a quick, elastic step, and frank, open countenance. The moment he descried the woman before mentioned he lifted his hat so respectfully as to completely gain Mrs. O'Connor's goodwill; but without leaving her time to move, he carefully set down his little burden, saying, earnestly,

"Could you stand where you are for a few moments, the sun is just glancing so prettily upon the cottage?" Then, not waiting for an answer, he produced a large portfolio, and began sketching away enthusiastically.

Mrs. O'Connor was highly flattered, and stood like a statue until he closed his portfolio, and said, gratefully,

"Thank you very much; I can fill it in at any time. Now I must be off;' and he was proceeding upon his way when Norah, who had been an attentive spectator of the whole scene, sprang forward, and, seizing his hand, exclaimed,

"Oh! grannie, won't you please thank the kind gentleman? A thorn ran into rny foot (here she displayed her rosy sole in nature's garb), so I sat down because it hurt me too much to walk, and he came by and carried me all the way home;' and Norah, quite breathless with her recital, ran and hid her face in her grandmother's sheltering arms.

"I am very much obliged to you indeed, sir," said Mrs. O'Connor, respectfully; "and if it is not too much to ask, as it is late and growing chilly, will you come in and share our frugal meal, which, though it is but scanty, will at least satisfy your hunger?" and with a grace which a lady might have envied Mrs. O'Connor motioned him into the cottage,