OCTOBER. 329 



on the ground. The nuts are sweet and agreeable, but are 

 too small to be worth the labour of collecting. Among them 

 are great numbers of the fruit of the sugar maple : it is a 

 samara, and very much resembles the wing and thora of a 

 large hymenopterous insect : the wing being full of longi- 

 tudinal veins adds to the likeness : they usually grow in 

 pairs, and might be taken for a pair of wings, but that the 

 thorax is likewise double. This part is hollow, and contains 

 the seed, the cotyledons of which are green, smooth, and 

 long-oval : these, though more than an inch in length when 

 unfolded, are so curiously convoluted and wrapped together, 

 as to occupy a space little larger than the head of a large 

 pin ; and this too is enclosed in a skin. Its taste is like that 

 of the beech nut. The seeds of the birch are very small and 

 flat, inserted beneath the scales of cones much like those of 

 the pine family : like the seeds of most forest trees, they are 

 almost confined to the topmost branches. The fruit of the 

 ash is long-oval, thin, and flat ; it is a samara : the seed 

 runs through the middle, but towards the lower end. One of 

 the most curious of our forest seeds is that of the basswood : 

 you may see one yonder 'slowly descending through the air : 

 it whirls round horizontally with great rapidity, as it falls, 

 as if on an axis or pivot. Take it up and examine it : here 

 is a long lance-oval leaf (bractea) transversely bent in the 

 middle : from the angle on the under side proceeds a slender 

 stalk, at the end of which is fixed a round body like a pea, 

 which looks, as it descends, as if it hung by a thread from 

 the leaf-like wing. This contains the seed. 



