76 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



black, as Tennyson, that close observer of Nature, 

 knew, for beautiful Judith in his " Gardener's 

 Daughter" had hair " blacker than ash-buds in 

 the front of March" (Fig. 12). 



Under the purplish-black wrappings which en- 

 close these spring parcels, there is 

 brown wool, which has protected the 

 bud's contents from wintry blasts, and 

 under this blanketing we shall find 

 stamens innumerable, but, as a rule, 

 stamens only. These are minute at 

 first, but they begin to stretch as soon 

 Fig. 12 Buds as t ^ ie bursting of the black case 

 (Fr f om h th e a F^- sets them free, and soon the stamen 



table World.) 



cluster becomes a conspicuous greenish- 

 purple plume, branching freely, and composed of 

 many long anthers on slender filaments. Towards 

 the end of April these stamen-plumes fall, having 

 shed all their pollen, and on the trees which have 

 borne them seeds are not to be expected. For 

 the pistils of most of the ashes grow on separate 

 trees, in green, branching bunches, and by the time 

 the leaves unfold each pistil will have developed 

 into a winged fruit. 



But the April aspect of the common or " white " 

 ash hints to us that once upon a time ash-trees 



