Last autumn, when I finally built a terrarium, my goal was to populate it with mosses and liverworts and observe them at close range, perhaps even doing better at identifying them to species. I decided, just to make things look more authentic, that I'd add a Partridgeberry, a pretty little vine that grows on the forest floor. After a short period of adjustment, all the plants appeared to be flourishing... so much so that, a few weeks ago, I noticed that the Partridgeberry, a.k.a. Mitchella repens, had put forth a pair of flower buds. This was ridiculously early, of course—the plant doesn't bloom around here until June—but the vine wasn't reading the phenology chart. Today, in what would normally be the heart of midwinter, M. repens opened up its flowers. Alas, I didn't have any bugs inside the glass house to pollinate the furry blooms... nor, equally alas, did I stock the terrarium with a mini-partridge, either on the ground or in a bonsai pear tree.