EARLY SPRING. 23 



long as useful, then drop off. The shape and color 

 of the buds are no less various than their economy is 

 admirable. In the beech-tree they are slender and 

 pointed, resembling brown thorns ; in the oak, solid 

 and amber-olive color ; in the ash, of the blackness of 

 soot ; in the lime, yellowish-red ; in the horse-chestnut, 

 covered with abundant sticky matter. Every tree, in 

 a word, may be told as readily in the earliest days 

 of spring by its buds alone, as in summer by its 

 flowers, and when in full leaf, by the peculiarities of 

 its foliage. This is one of the great charms of the 

 study of nature. We have always something to fall 

 back upon. Every season writes the names of its 

 trees and plants legibly and unmistakably, but in a 

 different mode. We never need be at loss, since the 

 disappearance of one feature is the signal for another 

 to come into view. The buds open at very various 

 times in the different kinds of trees. The first to come 

 in leaf is the woodbine or wild honeysuckle, which is 

 often in nearly full foliage many weeks before others 

 have begun to move ; the elder is also very prompt ; 

 and soon after them come those small, green, countless 

 specks in the hedges, that by and by are to make the 

 richness of the hawthorn, and become dappled with 

 its crowd of odorous blossoms. Marvellous is it to 

 note the power they have of resisting cold. Doubt- 

 less their progress is checked by the advent of a 

 frosty night after they have commenced ; the wonder, 



