150 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



black, looking like splashes of ink, and fungoid in their 

 origin. The stems are often red, and towards Autumn 

 a good deal of this red colour may be found in the leaves, 

 but the sycamore does not contribute much towards 

 the Autumnal splendour of colouring in the woods, for 

 very often its foliage merely shrivels up, turns a dull 

 brown, and forthwith drops. The flowers individually are 

 very small, and greenish in colour, but are clustered loosely 

 together in considerable numbers in the hanging racemes 

 that appear abundantly in the early Spring. The bees are 

 always very busy with them, finding them bountifully 

 honey-laden. 



The fruits of the sycamore and the maple differ from 

 all others found in our woods and hedges, being composed 

 of two winged fruits joined together as shown in our 

 figure. One venerable author describes the arrangement 

 as " fruit fastened together by couples, one right against 

 another, with kernels bumping out neere to the place in 

 which they are combined : in all the other parts flat and 

 thin, like vnto parchment, and resembling the innermost 

 wings of grasshoppers." A fruit thus winged is technically 

 called a samara, so the form we find in the sycamore and 

 maple is termed a double samara. These broad membranous 

 wings waft the seeds away, and thus we may find the young 

 plants widely dispersed from the parental home, starting life 

 for themselves in the crannies of the stonework of the old 

 church tower, in the cracks of the rocks, or wherever else 

 the conditions are fairly kindly to them. While the double 

 samara form differentiates the sycamore and the maple 

 from all other trees, they wear this exceptional distinction 

 with yet a difference, the twin wings of the sycamore 



