755), it is said to
flower on 16th April, and the cuckoo to begin his song on 17th April. It
is pleasant to find, in a Swedish calendar of flora, that the cuckoo
sings on 12th May, and the wood-sorrel flowers on 13th May. _Lychnis
flos-cuculi_, the ragged robin, flowers on 19th May, and seems to have no
kind of right to the name of a cuckoo-flower, though Gerarde remarks that
it "flowers in April and May, when the cuckoo doth begin to sing her
pleasant notes without stammering." {12d}

I remember being told by a physician that a celebrated Polish violinist
in his old age could not bear the sound of concerted music, but he would
weep over a musical score of which he said, "These beggars don't play out
of tune." This is also true of the great symphony of colour which the
springtime unfolds. The trees are double-basses, and doubtless some are
contra-fagotti, though I confess that I cannot speak positively on this
point. Then come a mass of beautiful shrub-like plants which make up the
rest of the string-band. As one who loves wind-instruments, I like to
think that the flutes, oboes, and clarinets are the flowers of my vernal
orchestra, decorating the great mass of stringed instruments with streaks
and flames of colour.

In real music, we cannot say why certain sounds make an appropriate
opening for a symphony; nor can we understand why the chorus of flowers
should (as above pointed out) be led by mezereon (_Daphne mezereum_),
followed by furze, hazel, the daisy, and the snowdrop.

Of course, their dates are not rigorously fixed: the plants just referred
to vary in their dates of flowering in the following way:

Mezereon, 11th January to 2nd February;

Furze, 1st January to 4th April;

Hazel, 1st January to 20th February;

Snowdrop, 18th January to 16th February;

the mean dates being: mezereon, 22nd January; furze, 24th January; hazel,
26th January; snowdrop, 30th January. One cause of variation in the date
of flowering is temperature, and in the early months of the year this is
probably the principal cause. Temperature must in the same way affect
the flowering of summer plants, though the result is not so striking as
in the springtime. In my article "A Procession of Flowers" (in this
volume) I have given the range of the dates of flowering for different
months.

The spring is the happiest season for those who love plants, who delight
to watch and record the advent of old friends as the great pro