4 6 



My Garden Summer-Seat. 



it extrudes over the little buds formed in later autumn, 

 in preparation for the next spring, which dries and 

 hardens, and is a most efficient protection for them 

 against the frosts and snows, often glittering like amber 

 between you and the sunset, it has a kind of honey 

 in which it encases them very effectively, through all 

 the cold and frost ; and when the sun once more begins 

 to look forth with a certain heat, this melts away and 

 drops to the ground in the most minute globules like 

 dew when the tree is stirred. Hence the truth of the 

 line 



"The sycamore drops honey when 'tis stirred." 



But the seed of the tree is even more curious and wonder- 

 ful than the bud. As I have sat here in later September 



and October, I have 



^-^^^^^^^^^i seen them part from 

 the treeandcomewith 

 a peculiar wavering 

 kind of flight on the 

 wind. These seeds 

 arecalled samaras, be- 

 cause they are really 

 winged, or perhaps 

 because the seed in 

 its envelope has a soft 

 furry, silky lining, 

 either from simarre, 

 a woman's dress or 

 scarf, or simarre, a 

 bishop's upper robe. 

 The wings of the 

 samara are beautifully adapted to float a heavy body, 

 which they do, as any one may see, at the right season, 



SYCAMORE TREE. 



