GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



— the botanical name is rather pleasing — is 

 noticeable, and as characteristic as its leafage. 

 See these side branches, leaving the slender 

 central stem with a graceful up -curve, but 

 almost at once swinging down, only to again 

 curve upward at the ends ! Are they not 

 graceful? Such branches as these point nature's 

 marvelous engineering, to appreciate which one 

 needs only to try to imagine a structure of 

 equal grace and efficiency, made with any ma- 

 terial of the arts. How awkward and clumsy 

 steel would be, or other metal! 



Along these swinging curved branches, as 

 we see them in the April winds, there appear 

 hints of the leaf richness that is to come — but 

 something else as well. These darkest purple- 

 red petals, almost black, as they change from 

 the green of their opening hue, make up the 

 peculiar flowers of the papaw. There is gold 

 in the heart of the flower, not hid from the 

 bees, and there is much of interest for the 

 seeker for spring knowledge as well; though 

 I advise him not to smell the flowers. Almost 

 the exact antithesis of the dogwood is the 

 bloom of this tree ; for, both starting green 



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