In April Weather 5 1 



After a few gentle showers and a few days of 

 sunshine, these brown spring parcels open wide 

 enough to show us what Mother Nature has been 

 hiding there. And before one has realized what 

 is happening some of the trees are covered with 

 woolly dangles, soft and gray as goslings which 

 have just chipped the shell. Looking closely at 

 one of these we see that it is a close chain of 

 scales, each clear and brown as a bit of tortoise- 

 shell, and each bordered with a silvery fringe. 



Under each scale is a bunch of stamens which, 

 when they first appear, are shrimp-pink, so that 

 the whole dangle, closely examined, is a lovely 

 harmony of soft color. But on the poplars which 

 bear such catkins as these there are no pistils 

 at all, and there will be no seeds later in the 

 year. 



On other poplars, meantime, the pistil-bearing 

 flower-buds, which hold the seed that is to be, 

 are opening. Their contents are at first much less 

 attractive to the eye than are the soft dangles of 

 pink and silver which issue from the staminate 

 buds. 



Each pistillate bud consists of about six brown 

 scales, which presently separate, and let out into 

 the April weather an humble green catkin about 



