38 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



Spring; what magic there is in the name! Once more 

 we can go afield and watch for the first comers of the floral 

 procession, confident that though the sharp March winds be 

 blowing yet we shall find signs of Nature's awakening on 

 every side. Let us stop and examine yonder clump of alders. 

 For so long have their catkins been swaying in the wintry 

 blast that one could almost doubt if there were indeed any 

 stir of life within. But let us examine them closely today and 

 now for the first time we get a hint of the gold inclosed under 

 that dull outer coat. Now we will pass along to that willow 

 and if the day be warm for the season and the sun bright we 

 may find a few early insects hovering about it, ready to carry 

 the pollen to some waiting pistils. 



Did you ever examine on a breezy spring day, a clump of 

 hazel bushes? Of course you noticed at once the swaying 

 grayish catkins, but did you look farther for the little red tips 

 of the fertile flowers? Here is another of our earliest 

 blossoms. I wonder who is botanist enough to tell from these 

 first signs which kind of a nut that particular bush will pro- 

 duce; whether it will be the one having the long hairy beak, 

 or the one having the nut inclosed in a sort of a ruffied affair, 

 called by the text books an involucre ! 



Now day by day the sun climbs higher and we may ex- 

 pect at almost any time to find in some sunny nook the first 

 hepatica, pushing its downy flower up amid last year's leaves. 

 Some fence corner will perchance contain a few bloodroot 

 blossoms. Etherial and delicate they are ; quite out of keeping 

 with the later rather coarse herbage of the plant. 



We are speaking of early blossoms so we must not pass 

 by a plant because it does not appeal to us by some striking 

 characteristic of bud or flower. There is the Pennsylvania 

 sedge, with its yellow tassel of stamens adorning many an 

 otherwise barren spot. On shady banks the birthroot with its 

 down leaves and its curious flower, lying almost, if not quite 



