A SPRING RELISH 



token stimulates it, and makes it more on 

 the alert. 



April, too, is the time to go budding. 

 A swelling bud is food for the fancy, and 

 often food for the eye. Some buds begin 

 to glow as they begin to swell. The bud 

 scales change color and become a delicate 

 rose pink. I note this especially in the 

 European maple. The bud scales flush as 

 if the effort to "keep in" brought the 

 blood into their faces. The scales of the 

 willow do not flush, but shine like ebony, 

 and each one presses like a hand upon the 

 catkin that will escape from beneath it. 



When spring pushes pretty hard, many 

 buds begin to sweat as well as to glow; 

 they exude a brown, fragrant, gummy sub- 

 stance that affords the honey-bee her first 

 cement and hive varnish. The hickory, 

 the horse-chestnut, the plane-tree, the pop- 

 lars, are all coated with this April myrrh. 

 That of certain poplars, like the Balm of 

 Gilead, is the most noticeable and fragrant, 

 no spring incense more agreeable. Its 

 perfume is often upon the April breeze. 

 I pick up the bud scales of the poplars 

 along the road, long brown scales like the 

 beaks of birds, and they leave a rich gummy 

 55 



