VI 



THE SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS OF 

 WOODS, THICKETS, AND HEDGEROWS 



Having considered the principal low-growing flowers of the woods, 

 we must now give some attention to the trees and shrubs of the same 

 localities. 



This portion of the field-naturalist's work will be found at least 

 as fascinating as the observation of the herbaceous plants, for 

 although the flowers of trees are often small and very inconspicuous, 

 many are really beautiful blossoms, and all present features of more 

 or less interest to the botanist. Moreover, the observations of these 

 flowers will always be coupled with those of the appearance and 

 expansion of the leaves, for while some trees produce their flowers 

 shortly before their leaves, and others after, leaves and flowers often 

 come about the same time, and the period of the year covered by the 

 present chapter — from about March to April or early June — will 

 include the bursting of the leaf-buds and the expansion of the 

 leaves of all our deciduous trees and shrubs. Opportunities should 

 be made at this season to observe not only the parts of the trees 

 just named, but to note all other characters presented by the trees, 

 such as the nature of the trunk and its bark, the mode of branching, 

 the appearance of the young twigs, and the nature of the soil and 

 situation in which each species is found. 



Our first example is the Barberry {Berheris vulgaris) — the only 

 British representative of its order {Berberacece) — a smooth, pale- 

 green shrub, from four to seven feet high, often seen in woods 

 thickets, and hedgerows, flowering in May and June. Its branches 

 generally droop at the tips, and have triple spines at the base of each 

 leaf or cluster of leaves. The latter are obovate, sharply toothed 

 or even prickly, and often reduced to a cluster of spines. The 

 flowers are pale yellow, in hanging racemes. Each has several 



