April and Early May 



he explained, evidently supposing, in 

 common, I find, with many others, that 

 "tree-blossoms" were chiefly confined 

 to the domesticated fruit-trees. 



We find some of the shrubs flowering 

 even earlier than the trees. During the 

 winter we noticed that the thickets were 

 hung with the scaly catkins of the al- 

 ders. As spring comes on these catkins 

 swell and soften into tassels of gold and 

 purple ; tassels which are composed of 

 male or staminate flowers, the female or 

 pistillate ones being borne in two or 

 three erect, oblong, cone-like heads. 



In hollows still filled with ice and snow, 

 the willows are wearing their soft gray 

 furs. If we break off a branch closely set 

 with the silken " pussies," as the children 

 call them, and place it in a jar of water 

 in the sunshine, the gray soon turns to 

 gold, and the least touch dislodges a 

 yellow cloud of pollen. A shrub which 

 flowers a little later than the early wil- 



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