The flowers appear upon the earth,
The time of the singing of birds is come.
Even then, search the woods as we may, we shall hardly find thus early in April another shrub in blossom, unless it be the spice-bush, whose tiny honey-yellow flowers escape all but the careful observer. The shad-bush has been thus named because of its flowering at the season when shad “run;” June-berry, because the shrub’s crimson fruit surprises us by gleaming from the copses at the very beginning of summer; service-berry, because of the use made by the Indians of this fruit, which they gathered in great quantities, and, after much crushing and pounding, utilized in a sort of cake.
Wood Anemone. Wind-flower.
Anemone nemorosa. Crowfoot Family.
Stem.—Slender. Leaves.—Divided into delicate leaflets. Flower.—Solitary, white, pink, or purplish. Calyx.—Of from four to seven petal-like sepals. Corolla.—None. Stamens and Pistils.—Numerous.
—Within the woods,
Whose young and half transparent leaves scarce cast
A shade, gay circles of anemones
Danced on their stalks;
writes Bryant, bringing vividly before us the feathery foliage of the spring woods, and the tremulous beauty of the slender-stemmed anemones. Whittier, too, tells how these