162 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



Now I take up another freckled, easily 

 broken twig, with noticeably short branch- 

 lets, some of them less than an inch in 

 length. Every one, even the shortest, is set 

 with brown globular buds of the size of pin- 

 heads. Toward the tip the main stem also 

 bears clusters of such tiny spheres. If you 

 do not know the branch by sight, I must ask 

 you to smell or taste the bark. " Sassa- 

 fras ? " No, though the guess is not surpris- 

 ing. It is spice-bush. The buds are flower- 

 buds. The shrub is one of our very early 

 bloomers, and makes its preparations accord- 

 ingly. While flowers are still scarce enough 

 to attract universal attention, it is thickly 

 covered with sessile or almost sessile yellow 

 rosettes, till it looks for all the world like 

 the early-flowering cornel {Cornus J!/as), 

 which blossoms about the same time in gar- 

 dens. Seeing these spice-bush buds, though 

 January is still young, I can almost see May- 

 day ; and when I snap the brittle stem and 

 sniff the fresh wood, I can almost believe 

 that I have snapped off half a century from 

 my life. What a good and wholesome smell 

 it is ! Among the best of nature's own. 



