OUR TREES IN WINTER. 51 



I love to lie beneath thy waving screen 



With limbs by summer's heat and toil opprest; 



And when the autumn winds have stript thee bare, 



And round thee lies the smooth untrodden snow, 



When nought is thine that made thee once so fair, 



I love to watch thy shadowy form below, 



And through thy leafless arms to look above 



On stars that brighter beam when most we need their love." 



The season of rest for the trees, however, is not of 

 very long duration; but as the winter wanes, and the 

 spring sun rises higher and higher, the trees reflect his in- 

 fluence, and long before the herbs and grasses show 

 signs of life, or the leaves can dare appear, the trees be- 

 come gorged with their juices, and to the ends of their 

 topmost branches are visibly full of life. Few objects 

 are at this time more conspicuous, than the golden twigs 

 of the white Willow, or the less brilliant, but larger 

 branches of the Poplars, which Avith the Birches, soon 

 hang, out their tassel-like catkins. The more humble 

 dark-stemmed Alders follow their example.' The Pines 

 shake out their brushes, which have been rigidly drawn 

 together to avoid the cold winds. The Pussy-willow 

 makes bold to show its yellow anthers, for it has all 

 winter pushed out farther and farther, as a warm day 

 permitted, the silky white heads of its catkins. A Dan- 

 delion or two blooms in the pastures, the Arbutus and 

 Hepatica are found hiding beneath protecting leaves. 

 In a word, spring has come, and so .it is from the time of 

 the falling of the leaves in autumn to their reappearance 

 in summer, we find that there is much to learn about 

 trees in winter. 



After appropriate remarks from Dr. Abbott and the 

 Rev. E. S. Atvvood the meeting adjourned, to enable the 

 party to botanize in the woods before their return to the 

 city. 



