THE A WAKENING OF THE TREES 



The walnut flowers come later, 

 and the leaves overtake them and get 

 in the way of the pollen-carrying. 

 The statninate flowers grow in catkins 

 and drop pollen on their neighbors' 

 backs in little heaps that will rise 

 like a cloud with the first breeze. 

 You can find baby walnuts not as 

 large as peas. Be sure to notice that 

 every one has a big rough stigma to 

 catch the pollen in order to make the 

 little plant grow within its shell. 

 Now the little plants within the nut 

 shells are richly provided with food, a 

 sort of food that we like to eat our- 

 selves, and so do the squirrels and 

 other animals. You can think, then, 

 why the walnut needs the bitter green 

 rind until the inner shells are hard. 

 The rinds turn brown finally, and are 

 nearly the color of the ground, but 

 the squirrels' sharp eyes can find 

 them out, and their sharp teeth can 

 gnaw through the shells. Still 

 some nuts escape their foes, or are 

 buried by them, and from these seeds 

 new walnut trees spring up on our 

 hillsides. 



In our orchards, too, there is the 

 spring time awakening of the trees. 

 The apricot and peach trees are like 

 clouds of pale rose or pink, and 

 through the snowy pear blossoms the 

 tender green leaves are seen. There 



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105 



Fig. 39. PEACH BLOSSOMS 



