268 TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 



above, covered with a woolly down underneath. Flowers : white, tinted witi 

 pink and growing in an umbel. Calyx : covered with tomentum when young. 

 Fruit : large; globose; depressed at the apex and base. 



" Come, let us plant the apple-tree 

 Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; 

 Wide let its hollow bed be made; 

 There gently lay the roots, and there 

 Sift the dark mould with kindly care, 



And press it o'er them tenderly, 

 As, round the sleeping infant's feet, 

 We softly fold the cradle-sheet; 



So plant we the apple-tree." 



Bryant. 



When scattered over the country and in among the other trees 

 there are those that appear like rosy-tinted snowballs, it is the 

 time of the apple trees' blooming. From the swelling of their 

 buds to the advent of the full-grown petals which quiver against 

 the intense blue of the sky and exhale their faint perfume, the 

 earth seems suddenly to have lost its wits in the excess of 

 extravagance. But such a holiday mood could hardly be of 

 long duration. There is work to be done, and fruit must grow 

 and ripen. So the blossom storm carries away the dainty flecks 

 of white, and sombreness comes back again. 



It is then the turn of the foliage to expand, to become dense 

 and to provide shelter for the protection of the forming fruit. 



Although a cultivated tree, and one that has been introduced 

 from Europe and western Asia, it lingers so often by the lanes 

 and waysides of this country and its boughs of fruit so tempt- 

 ingly appeal to the wayfarer that it has here been accorded a 

 place. To study the trees and forget the common apple would 

 be sad indeed. 



