58 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



be exhausted in a year by wild-flower gatherers, and the woods 

 would lose one of their chief spring attractions forever, just to 

 gratify some thoughtless person for a day or two, or until the 

 flowers wilted. Enjoy the flowers in the woods, where they 

 are the prettiest and the most attractive, but if you think you 

 must take them home, be content with a moderate number. 



Prof. Bailey's interesting note, printed below, on the pro- 

 fuse blooming of sugar maple this year is just in line with the 

 notes on another page concerning squirrel-corn. In central 

 Illinois the maple has bloomed no more freely than in other 

 years. Possibly some local peculiarity of the climate may 

 wholly or partially explain it. 



Everyone knows that fruit-trees, especially, enjoy alter- 

 nate years of profuse bloom. Hence, with apple-trees the 

 familiar terms "ofif" and "on" years. As a rule, I think the 

 forest trees are much less subject to these alterations but for 

 many years I have observed them as a marked feature in the 

 life of sugar maples. It so happens that this beautiful tree is a 

 great favorite of mine so that every year I look for its dainty 

 dream-like flowers and often are disappointed. This year, 

 however, is an "on" one with my friend and I think I rarely 

 if ever saw it so abundantly clothed with blossoms. All the 

 specimens I have seen, and there are many growing in the 

 streets as shade trees, are alike in this prolific exhibition. To 

 stand beneath one of these maples in flower is a liberal edu- 

 cation. It seems like some vast fountain bestowing upon us a 

 benison of gold. Of course one naturally expects, as a result 

 of the unusual fecundity this year, a corresponding dearth of 

 blossoms another. One is led to marvel how these alter- 

 nations come about, and why all the trees of a species simul- 

 taneously exhibit the phenomenon. 



Again, can the alternations be made less pronounced, or 

 even broken up, by destroying a majority of the flowers in 



