CATKINS 73 



stem dwindled to an insignificant size, we should get 

 something like the bulb of the Onion. 



Lay the cut surface of the Onion-bulb in a saucer 

 of dilute iodine solution. It does not change colour. 

 The Onion contains no starch, but plenty of sugar 

 instead. 



CATKINS. 1 



March 16, 1895. This is the first entirely pleasant 

 day of spring. A soft air, a gentle west wind, con- 

 tinuous though veiled sunshine. The long grass has 

 been turned grey by the hard winter weather of 

 January and February, but close to the ground green 

 tufts are already springing. 



Walking this morning in a little copse, I saw 

 catkins on the Hazel and Alder. The buds of the 

 Willow are beginning to part, and to show a silvery 

 gleam from the hairs which clothe their bracts. Snow- 

 drops (much later than usual) are in flower. The 

 Crocus, too, is flowering, but only in favoured spots. 

 The ten weeks' frost has kept them back far beyond 

 their usual time. 



Many seeds dispersed by the gales of winter are 

 beginning to germinate. The seedlings of the Syca- 

 more are plentiful, some just pushing out their green 

 radicles from the scar which marks the former adhe- 

 sion of the seed-vessel to its fellow, others just 

 escaped from the seed-vessel, but still enveloped in 

 the brown seed-coat, others quite free, and beginning 



1 The word (German Kdtzchen) means kitten. In some 

 country places the catkins of the Sallow are called kittens and 

 catstails. 



