PLUM FAMILY 



tip])ccl," and appear so pi'ofusely as to transform the 

 branch into a flowery sceptre. Stamens are few, 

 sometimes a perfect one can be found, but usually a 

 few filaments do duty for all. Under a glass the pistil 

 will be seen to have become leaf-like. The leaves are 

 a quarter grown before the petals fall. 



This beautiful creature comes into the spring-time 

 with charming grace ; the whole plant is a mass of 

 pinkish bloom ; its surpassing loveliness continues for 

 but one short week ; then scattering its petals to the 

 ground it passes from recollection until another spring 

 calls it to its short-lived service. *' Beauty is its own 

 excuse for being." 



In its flowering period the little bush is a late com- 

 panion or an immediate follower of the forsythias; it 

 blooms with the magnolias and the red-buds ; before its 

 roses have faded the lilacs are in bloom, and the Spirca 

 prunifolia is out; often this last overlaps the other so 

 that one sees tw^o sets of flower buttons side by side. 

 Two varieties of the species are in cultivation, one 

 bearing pinkish flowers, and the other white. 



ii6 



