BUD-BREAK 



[NCE more eyes, weary with watching, 

 brighten and welcome back the vernal 

 pomp ; once more life wakens, while the 

 blood of man and the sap of the forest 

 flow gloriously. You shall note a rivalry in the 

 grand, far-flung, universal rush of the green ; yet for 

 the most part it would appear that in all localities 

 like order prevails, that the bud breaks in similar 

 rotation upon every tree. 



Of oak and ash, indeed, the adage hath it that 

 sometimes one, sometimes the other is the earlier 

 to produce a new season's foliage, and country wise- 

 acres hold stoutly to it that should the ash come 

 out before the oak, a wet Summer may be counted 

 upon with certainty ; while others are of a contrary 

 opinion. But whereas the ash usually shakes forth 

 its strange inflorescence grape-purple in the bud 

 before the oak flowers, yet in my experience the latter 

 is the first in leaf, though its bright lemon catkins 

 follow the foliage. Now the buds of the horse- 

 chestnut are at last open ; the shining stipules, 

 watched through wintertime, have fluttered to earth 

 like beetle-shards, and the crinkled green can be 



53 



