GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



house? But this is not a corn story — I shall 

 hope to be heard on the neglected beauty of 

 many common things, some day — and we can for 

 the time overlook the syrup of the sugar maple 

 for its delicate blossoms, coming long after the 

 red and the silver are done with their flowers. 

 These sugar -maple blooms hang on slender 

 stems ; they come with the first leaves, and are 

 very diflferent in appearance from the flowers of 

 other maples. The observer will have no 

 trouble in recognizing them after the first 

 successful attempt, even though he may be 

 baffled in comparing the maple leaves by the 

 apparent similarity of the foliage of the Nor- 

 way, the sugar and the sycamore maples at 

 certain stages of growth. 



After all, it is the autumn time that brings 

 this maple most strongly before us, for it 

 flaunts its banners of scarlet and yellow in the 

 woods, along the roads, with an insouciant swing 

 of its own. The sugar possibility is forgotten, 

 and it is a pure autumn pleasure to appreciate 

 the richness of color, to be soon followed by 

 the more sober cognizance of the elegance of 

 outline and form disclosed when all the deli- 



12 



