CATKINS AND ALMOND-BLOSSOM. 33 



pinky-white blossom, standing out in true Japanesque 

 relief against the bold background of the deep-blue sky. 



They are hardly pretty, these flowering almonds and 

 other masses of spring bloom on leafless trees ; they 

 sadly lack the natural accompaniment of green foliage, 

 to which our eyes are so accustomed that the two 

 together form for us what Mr. Whistler would doubtless 

 call a native symphony in pink and green. Each indi- 

 vidual blossom is beautiful in itself I mean in the 

 graceful and undistorted single almond ; for the double- 

 flowering monstrosity, with its simple natural sym- 

 metry lost in a bunchy rosette of indistinguishable tags, 

 is unlovely to the botanical eye. Each single five- 

 petalled blossom is beautiful in itself, I say ; and even a 

 tall spray of them deftly displayed in a vase against a 

 contrasting background is effective enough, as those 

 same cunning Japanese artists long ago found out, with 

 their usual quick eye for colour-harmonies ; but on the 

 tree, growing all together, they have a certain bare and 

 poverty-stricken appearance as they cling tightly to 

 their naked stems, which always suggests the notion 

 that they are pitiably cold and want a few leaves to 

 keep them warm. So, bright and spring-like as they 

 are, they cannot be considered exactly pretty at least 

 from a little distance, or unless one stands close beneath 

 the branches so as to isolate a few sprays in bold relief 

 against the retiring sky. 



This habit, in which so many spring plants and 

 trees indulge the habit of sending up their flower- 

 stalks or opening their blossom before they put out any 

 of their leaves is a curious and interesting one. It is, 

 indeed, far more common than casual observers would 



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