TREE FRUITS AND FLOWERS 



619 



majority of tree flowers. Leave June 

 for the "wild-flowers," so called. Early 

 in April all the maples will be in bloom, 

 the flowers coming out and setting fruit 

 before the leaves. If there is a red 

 maple anywhere about, your nose will 

 tell you of that fact. A wonderful 

 perfume will be wafted through the 

 forest ; look for a dark red blotch in the 

 tree tops; it is the crown of a 

 flowering red maple. The flow- 

 ers are small, red with yellow 

 stamens, a pretty enough 

 branch for house decoration 

 anywhere. The sterile flowers 

 arc the most showy, the fertile 

 ones being broader, with thin 

 red calyx. All the other maples 

 except the mountain maple 

 flower early ; our two old friends, 

 the rock maple and silver maple, 

 having small greenish-yellow 

 flowers, much of the shape of 

 the red maple ones. The latter 

 and the silver maple set fruit 

 early and by mid-May the 

 pink samaras will come whirling 

 down, so that the crop of 

 young trees for that year will 

 already be well under way by 

 fall. The rock maple keys, on 

 the contrary, do not come down 

 until late fall . 



Looking further for tree 

 flowers in early spring, we 

 would visit the stream banks 

 on the lookout for the gray 

 catkins of the pussy willow, 

 often out in late March, and 

 for the yellow pendants of the 

 black willow. These are com- 

 pound flowers, the despair of there 

 the museum flower preparation 

 men, for each catkin consists of dozens 

 of tiny flowerets, each complete in itself, 

 and its interstices are well filled with 

 silky hairs whose function appear to be 

 to protect the pollen from being all 

 blown away at once by the too-vigorous 

 winds of early spring. 



In the middle west, where the Judas 

 tree is common, its early spring tree 

 flower greets us while yet the violets 

 have hardly opened out. It is a slender 

 tree growing in the thickets and is 

 profusely ornamented with the pale, 



pink-maroon blossoms, reminding one 

 somewhat of the bleeding heart of the 

 home garden. Occasionally this tree is 

 met in the East, so one should not 

 despair of finding a specimen during 

 the early spring rambles. 



Carrying us on into great May is the 

 service-berry bush, coming out late in 

 April, and conspicuous with its sprays 



The Chestnut, 

 is no mistaking this blossom which is to be seen 

 late in june or early in july. 



of white blossoms, fragrant and beau- 

 tiful. It fruits in June and July, 

 yielding a reddish-purple sweet berry, 

 and if there is any better jam than the 

 "service berry" as made by the moun- 

 tain men and backwoodsmen I have 

 yet to taste it ! 



But now comes the glorious month of 

 May, when the forest is loaded with 

 flowers and one hardly knows where to 

 turn first in describing them all. Most 

 conspicuous of all is the flowering -dog- 

 wood, with its immense white-petalled 



