In April Weather 53 



tightly away in little silvery buds. What appears 

 to be foliage is innumerable seed-pods, hanging 

 from the branches in countless chains. Later 

 these pods will split open, and give to the spring 

 breezes a great number of minute seeds, winged 

 with cottony down. In localities where the white 

 poplars abound, these seeds are sometimes shed in 

 such numbers that they lie in sheltered places, 

 blown into light heaps like the first snow before a 

 November gale. 



The blossoms of the elm appear in great pro- 

 fusion in latter March or early April. They grow 

 huddled together in bunches, are of a delicate 

 green, and are often mistaken for unfolding leaves. 

 The buds whence they issue are dark-colored and 

 large, and are scattered closely along the sides of 

 the twigs, but seldom borne on the tips. Every 

 one of these big buds is covered with a few brown 

 scales, which separate in early spring, and let out 

 into the sun ten or twelve slender stalks, each 

 supporting a shallow green cup with a rim of 

 golden-brown. Each cup is a flower, always pretty 

 when one looks at it closely, and sometimes as 

 perfect as the stateliest tulip. For it may con- 

 tain from four to nine stamens, and in their midst 

 a green, flat, heart-shaped pistil, forking into two 



