38 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



are very different ; they have hard woody steins, 

 that I can cut pegs and wedges from, and I never 

 saw this odd sheath round any of their flowers." 



" But trees have no flowers," said Eobert. 



"Indeed they have," exclaimed his sister, "and 

 I wonder you never saw me picking up lime 

 blossoms and elm blossoms, under the trees. They 

 are small, but very pretty. I like even the little 

 purplish laurel blossoms, and the tiny dark flowers 

 on the arbor vitse. And oh, how pleasant it is to 

 go down into the alder bed to get the beautiful 

 catkins, or to run to the wood for 



' Hazel-buds with crimson gems, 

 Green and glossy sallows.' 



But perhaps you do not know what sallows are :- 

 they are willows ; and you recollect what pretty 

 green and shining tufts there are at the end of 

 the willow branches in the early spring." 



"Mary is wild after flowers," said Eobert: 

 " and she finds out all the early buds and catkins. 

 She gathered all these grasses just before hay- 

 making time last summer." 



" All flowering plants," said his father, " are 

 ranged under two great classes, or divisions, called 

 JEJndogens and Uxoffens, from their manner of 



