ARDLY a season passes with- 
out my being in receipt of one 
or more inquiries, personal or 
by letter, concerning this snowy brood which 
haunts the alders in the swamp or along the 
road-side, and which envelops the smaller branches 
in its dense, feathery fringe. It is often one of 
the most frequent and conspicuous incidents in 
a country walk during its season, and its season 
ranges from its height in early summer until the 
frost. And yet how few there are, even of. those, 
perhaps, who pass it every day, who have any defi- 
nite idea of its character ! 
I know one rustic who claimed that it was 
" dry-rot," or a " speeshy of mould "; but the wool- 
ly phenomenon is commonly dismissed by the 
rural mind with the observation that it is " bugs 
