GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



of a gentleman of the old school, dignified in 

 his knee-breeches and cocked hat, fully aware 

 that he is of comfortable importance ! 



Those little button-balls that give name to 

 this good American tree follow the flower clus- 

 ters without much change of form — they were 

 flowers, they are seeds — and they stay by the 

 tree persistently all winter, blowing about in 

 the sharp winds. After a while one is banged 

 often enough to open its structure, and then 

 the carrying wind takes on its wings the neat 

 little cone-shaped seeds, each possessed of its 

 own silky hairs to help float it gently toward 

 the ground — and thus is another of nature's 

 curious rounds of distribution completed. 



A tree is never without interest to those 

 whose eyes have been opened to some of the 

 wonders and perfections of nature. Neverthe- 

 less, there is a time in the year's round when 

 each tree makes its special appeal. It may be 

 in the winter, when every twig is outlined 

 sharply against the cold sky, and the snow 

 reflects light into the innermost crevices of its 

 structure, that the elm is most admirable. 

 When the dogwood has on its white robe in 



2i8 



