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bark, which seems to run in plates of some several 

 inches in length at rather regular intervals. This 

 plating of the sassafras bark always reminds me of 

 the little bundles of kindling wood sold at grocer's 

 stores. If you once get this feature fixed in your 

 eye you can always tell a sassafras by its bark alone. 

 The sassafras blooms in the spring with yellow-green 

 flowers in small close clusters. These change into 

 small bluish berries which are ripe in September. In 

 the autumn this tree is in its glory, and its leaves 

 fairly flame with orange and scarlet, cooling off into 

 the most beautiful shades of crimson and purple. 

 It may be interesting to add that the tree belongs to 

 the laurel family. 



Beyond the sassafras, about opposite the red maple 

 on the south side of the Walk, you will see a spread- 

 ing shrub with branches which seem trying hard to 

 sprawl over the lawn, in a crab-like manner. Come 

 here and stand before it in June. Then it lives up to 

 its name smoke tree fairly bursting with some un- 

 seen fire, which you feel must be raging under all 

 those rolling puffs of cloudy fluff which have changed 

 the shrub as by magic into a miracle of beauty. Truly, 

 in bloom, it is well named, and as you stand and gaze 

 upon it, its smoke seems held as by enchantment, and 

 you half expect the spell to break and to see the cloud 

 rise in curling wreaths, and float away upon the breeze. 

 Strictly speaking, this fluffy condition takes place just 

 after the delicate flowers (greenish in terminal or 

 axillary clusters) have been fully developed, when the 

 calyx and corolla have fallen away, and the pedicel 



