THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 37 



beauty to this silk moth of Japan. The colors are a magnifi- 

 cent blending of olive, rose-color, purple and brown. 



The leaves are retained till the first autumn frosts, when 

 the leaflets suddenly fall, leaving the stalks for several weeks 

 longer. An objection to the tree has always been the perfectly 

 disgusting animal-like odor of the male flowers, — "redolent," 

 as Gray says, "of any other odors than those of paradise." 

 But it is not necessary to plant the staminate tree, and the 

 female in fruit, with its large bunches of ash-like keys, has an 

 added beauty. While, as a rule, these keys are of a yellowish 

 tint, I have seen them near the seashore, at Gloucester, Mass. 

 of a superb scarlet simulating the effect of mountain-ash. In- 

 deed, on one occasion, while at some distance, I mistook it 

 therefore. 



The plant spreads vigorously by offshoots as well as by 

 seed, and it has been said of it, that if, by some dire calamity. 

 New York should fall in ruin and for a time be uninhabited, 

 it would in a few years be covered with a forest of Ailanthus. 



Brown University, Providence, R. I. 



EARLY BLOSSOMS. 



BY FRANK DOBBIN. 



TO WHICH of our native plants shall we give the first 

 place as the earliest bloomer? At first thought one 

 would probably mention the arbutus or possibly the hepatica, 

 but stop a moment; what of the malodorous skunk cabbage 

 that pushes its twisted spathe through the soil some time in 

 March. We bring it home, careful to keep it beyond the 

 reach of our sense of smell, because it is a "blossom." But 

 even earlier than this, perchance our rambles has led us to 

 some brook already awakened from its winter sleep and we 

 have been surprised and pleased to find the little golden 

 saxifrage in flower. Inconspicuous though it be, here is a 

 herald of spring, as true as the bluebird or the robin. 



