GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



the priests who had played upon his cupidity. 

 Indeed, tradition is able to tell even now 

 marvelous stories to travelers, and not long 

 ago I was more amused than edified to hear 

 an eloquent clergyman just returned from 

 abroad tell how he had been shown the fruits 

 of the Judas-tree, "in form like beautiful apples, 

 fair to the eye, but within bitter and disap- 

 pointing;" and he moralized just as vigorously 

 on this fable as if it had been true, as he 

 thought it. He didn't particularly relish the 

 suggestion that the pulpit ought to be fairly 

 certain of its facts, whether of theology or of 

 science, in these days; but he succumbed to 

 the submission of authority for the statement 

 that the Eastern so-called Judas-tree, Cercis 

 siliquastrum^ bore a small pod, like a bean, and 

 was not unpleasant, any more than the pod 

 was attractive. 



I mention this only in reprobation of the 

 unpleasant name that really hurts the estimation 

 of one of the most desirable and beautiful of 

 America's smaller trees. The American red- 

 bud is a joy in the spring about dogwood 

 time, for it is all bloom, and of a most striking 



202 



