MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



that hang in tiny clusters half-unnoticed on 

 the branches ? Those ? Why, can't you 

 guess? They are next April's .catkins. 

 Pick them off, and open one, and you will 

 find inside it the wee yellowish-green 

 stamens, already distinctly formed, and rich 

 with the raw material of future golden pollen. 

 The birch and the alder toiled, like La Fon- 

 taine's ant, through all the sunny summer, 

 and laid by in their tissues the living stuff 

 from which to produce next spring's fluffy 

 catkins. But that they may lose no time 

 when April comes round again, and may 

 take advantage of the first sunshiny day 

 with a fine breeze blowing for the dispersal 

 of their pollen, they just form the hanging 

 masses of tiny flowers beforehand, in the 

 previous autumn, keep them waiting in stock, 

 so to speak, through the depth of winter, and 

 unfold them at once with the earliest hint 

 of genial April weather. Observe, though, 

 how tightly the flowerets are wrapped in the 

 close-fitting scales, overlapping like Italian 



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