The earliest of these is undoubtedly the Pilewort or Lesser Celandine (_Ranunculus Ficaria_), which appears early in April, and often in such abundance as to cover the ground with its leaves and flowers. This flower is not confined to fields and meadows, but often covers large patches of bank and hedgerow, where, together with the Greater Stitchwort, it produces a most brilliant show of white and yellow stars. The plant has a small rootstock, with a number of little oblong tubers which are renewed every year, and sometimes a branched, creeping stem. Its leaves usually all grow direct from the rootstock, and are stalked, heart-shaped, glossy, with crenate or angled margins. The flower-stalks bear a few small leaves, and a single flower with three sepals, and about eight glossy, oblong, yellow petals. The cluster of carpels in the middle of the flower form a large, globular head. A little later in the season our pastures are bountifully bedecked by two of the most familiar Buttercups--the Creeping Buttercup (_R. repens_) and the Bulbous Buttercup (_R. bulbosus_), both of which appear early in May. [Illustration: THE FIELD PENNY CRESS.] The former grows from six inches to a foot in height, and may be easily distinguished by its creeping stems, which give off root fibres and produce new plants at every node. The flowering stems of this species are clothed with long hairs, and the leaves are divided into three stalked segments which are lobed and toothed, the middle segment projecting much beyond the other two. The flowers are in loose panicles, on long, furrowed stalks, with five yellowish-green, concave, spreading sepals that are shorter than the petals. The carpels are ovate in form, somewhat flattened, arranged in a globular head; and the fruits are smooth. This plant is abundant almost everywhere, and continues to flower till the end of the summer. The Bulbous Buttercup is very similar to the last species, but may be known at once by its swollen, bulbous root. Its leaves are divided into three segments which are more or less toothed and lobed, and the sepals bend backwards on the peduncle as soon as the flower opens. Its carpels are smooth, and form a globular head; and the ripened achenes are also smooth. The plant is very abundant. It flowers from May to August. [Illustration: THE WILD PANSY.] Coming now to the Crucifers, we have first to note the Field Pennycress (_Thlaspi arvense_), which may be recognised at once by reference to our illustration. It is an erect, smooth, plant, from six to twenty inches in height, a common weed in cultivated ground, flowering from May to July. Its radical leaves are stalked, and wither early; and the small white flowers are soon followed by round siliquas, about half an inch in diameter, with a broad wing notched at the top.