16 UNAPPRECIATED FLOWERS 



out from a multitude of openings in their sides. The 

 pussies on the Willows have come out confidingly in 

 many places, but seem to have been chilled and dis- 

 couraged by the lingering winter. These, too, are 

 flowers, greeting the returning sunshine with all the 

 eagerness of new life* In a short time the male and 

 female trees will be easily distinguished as the catkins 

 turn yellow or red. And as the season advances and 

 the yellow catkins fall to the ground, the fertile trees 

 will bear bundles of diminutive pods, bursting with 

 the airy, cottony wings that carry the seed away on 

 the passing breeze. The spirit of new life among the 

 flowering trees is struggling in the tenacious hold of 

 winter, and sympathetic nature feels already the thrill 

 of its certain emancipation. 



