48 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



eclat quite akin to the way in which most women 

 don their spring millinery; yet nature keeps no old 

 feathers or ribbons to trim her new coats and hats. 

 It is as if the world had gone colour mad over- 

 night. The wind has awakened all the trees and the 

 bursting buds open and send forth myriads of deli- 

 cate and exquisite flowers. The apple, the cherry, 

 the peach, the plum, in fact nearly all the fruit trees, 

 are quite lavish in their displays. On the other 

 hand, many of our shade and forest trees, such 

 as the oak and the maple, are so modest in their ef- 

 forts that we hardly realise that they are flowering. 

 Their blossoms are well-formed and daintily col- 

 oured, but they are so small and inconspicuous that 

 one rarely sees them. Not a few trees, like the pop- 

 lar, arrange their flowers on long, pendulous chains 

 which we call catkins. Sometimes the male or 

 staminate flowers are separate from the female or 

 pistil-bearing flowers and again they are merged 

 in one. 



Tree-flowers are as varied in their form and col- 

 ouring as the boughs which wear them. Each fam- 

 ily of trees has a fashion all its own; just as each 

 nation of people has its own peculiar style of dress. 

 The tulip-tree and the magnolia are especially 

 showy and yet they have a certain air of military 

 precision. The sassafras and ash are cold, firm, 



