The same order includes the well-known Blue-bell or Wild Hyacinth (_Hyacinthus nonscriptus_ or _Scilla festalis_), which is occasionally confused with the Harebell of the order _Campanulaceæ_. The leaves of this plant are linear and channelled, and the drooping flowers form a raceme of from six to twelve blooms. The perianth is bell-shaped, composed of six united parts, usually blue, but rarely pink or white. The anthers are yellow, and as with all the plants of this order, the ovary is superior. (See Plate I, Fig. 5.) In damp woods we often meet with the Hairy Sedge (_Carex hirta_), which grows from one to two feet high; and in similar situations, the Pendulous Wood Sedge (_C. sylvatica_)--a tufted species, with a weak, leafy stem, from two to three feet high, and flaccid leaves. The latter has a single terminal, male spikelet, of about an inch long; and slender, drooping female spikelets, of about the same length, on long stalks. On Plate I, we also represent the Wood Melic Grass (_Melica uniflora_), a slender, graceful species which may be seen in woods, often in bloom as early as the beginning of May. VI THE SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS OF WOODS, THICKETS, AND HEDGEROWS Having considered the principal low-growing flowers of the woods, we must now give some attention to the trees and shrubs of the same localities. This portion of the field-naturalist's work will be found at least as fascinating as the observation of the herbaceous plants, for although the flowers of trees are often small and very inconspicuous, many are really beautiful blossoms, and all present features of more or less interest to the botanist. Moreover, the observations of these flowers will always be coupled with those of the appearance and expansion of the leaves, for while some trees produce their flowers shortly before their leaves, and others after, leaves and flowers often come about the same time, and the period of the year covered by the present chapter--from about March to April or early June--will include the bursting of the leaf-buds and the expansion of the leaves of all our deciduous trees and shrubs. Opportunities should be made at this season to observe not only the parts of the trees just named, but to note all other characters presented by the trees, such as the nature of the trunk and its bark, the mode of branching, the appearance of the young twigs, and the nature of the soil and situation in which each species is found.