A SPRING RELISH 



token stimulates it, and makes it more on 

 the alert. 



April, too, is the time to go budding. 

 A swelling bud is food for the fancy, and 

 often food for the eye. Some buds begin 

 to glow as they begin to swell. The bud 

 scales change color and become a delicate 

 rose pink. I note this especially in the 

 European maple. The bud scales flush as 

 if the effort to ** keep in" brought the 

 blood into their faces. The scales of tlie 

 willow do not flush, but shine like ebony, 

 and each one presses like a hand upon the 

 catkin that will escape from beneath it. 



When spring pushes pretty hard, many 

 buds begin to sweat as well as to glow ; 

 they exude a brown, fragrant, gummy sub- 

 stance that affords the honey-bee her first 

 cement and hive varnish. The hickory, 

 the horse-chestnut, the plane-tree, the poi> 

 lars, are all coated with this April myrrh. 

 That of certain poplars, like the l^ahn of 

 Gilead, is the most noticeable and fragrant, 

 ^no spring incense more agreeable. Its 

 perfume is often upon the April breeze. 

 I pick up the bud scales of the poplars 

 along the road, long brown scales like the 

 beaks of birds, and they leave a rich gummy 



55 



