CHAPTER IV 



WHEN THE WOODS ARE LEAF-GREEN 



April 



*' Summer is y 'coming in, 



Loud sing cuckoo ! 

 Groweth seed, bloweth mead, 

 And springeth the weed anew. 



Sing cuckoo, cuckoo ! 

 Well singest thou, cuckoo, 

 Never thy like I knew ; 



Merry sing cuckoo !" 



Foliage is the most prominent feature of the plant 

 world. Trunks and branches are large and grand ; 

 the parti-colored flowers are, at first glance, more 

 beautiful, but the leaf is the most conspicuous part 

 of vegetation. If flowers and leaves exchanged 

 places, and wherever is now a leaf we should have a 

 blossom, the eyes would soon tire of the* glare of 

 vivid color, and we should long for the soft, restful 

 green of leaves. 



When we speak of a leaf we think at once of the 

 flat, green, expanded body, springing from the stem, 

 or from the hidden root crown. This is truly the 

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