3G JBotang 



are to be liewn down. A tree cut in this way early 

 in spring, after the sap begins to ascend is so full of 

 sap that it will put forth leaves, which will live some 

 time on the sap which has already gone up into the 

 branches. 



February affords a very good season for the study 

 of the stem. In the mild dsLjs we can search for 

 underground stems; we have the trees and shrubs; 

 also the house plants show us herb stems; the vege- 

 tables in the cellar give us further specimens of 

 tubers, corms, bulbs. By the aid of a microscope 

 very wonderful and beautiful structures wall be 

 discovered. On a sunny late February day we 

 linger in some woodland walk ; there is already the 

 promise of spring in the mild air and the clear blue 

 depths of sky ; this brilliant atmosphere brings out 

 very emphatically the marvelous tracery of stems 

 and branches, making the denuded trees almost as 

 beautiful objects as those in their leafy prime. Our 

 admiration of these graceful and intricate divisions 

 and multiplied subdivisions is not lessened when we 

 realize that all this network of trunk, branch, limb, 

 twig on each tree is the development of some one 

 single original bud. In these days in February, 

 trunks and branches lose that dry dull look which, 

 for three months, has made them appear as dead 

 trees ; there is a certain freshness and w^armth of 



