MAY. 109 



willows full of bright yellow aments, maples with buds, 

 blossoms, and foliage of crimson, and interspersed among 

 them junipers, hemlocks, and other evergreens, that stand 

 out from their assemblages like natives of another clime. 

 As the month advances, while these contrasts remain, new 

 ones are daily appearing as one tree after another comes 

 into flower, each exhibiting a tint peculiar not only to 

 the species, but often to the individual and the situation, 

 until hardly two trees in the whole wood are quite alike 

 in color. 



As the foliage ripens, the different shades of green be- 

 come more thoroughly blended into a single uniform tint. 

 But ere the process is completed the fruit-trees open their 

 blossoms and bring a new spectacle of contrasts into view. 

 Peach-trees, with their pale crimson flowers, that appear 

 before the leaves, and stand in flaming rows along the 

 fences, like burning bushes ; pear-trees, with corols per- 

 fectly white, internally fringed with brown anthers, like 

 long dark eyelashes, that give them almost the counte- 

 nance of life ; cherry-trees, with their white flowers en- 

 veloped in tufts of foliage, occupied by the oriole and the 

 linnet ; and apple-trees, with flowers of every shade be- 

 tween a bright crimson or purple and a pure white, — • all 

 come forth one after another to welcome the birthday 

 of June. 



During the last week in May, were you to stand on an 

 eminence that commands an extensive view of the coun- 

 try, you would be persuaded that the prospect is far more 

 magnificent than at midsummer. At this time you look 

 not upon individuals but upon groups. Before you lies 

 an ample meadow, nearly destitute of trees save a few 

 elms standing in equal majesty and beauty, combining in 

 their forms the gracefulness of the palm with the grandeur 

 of the oak; here and there a clump of pines, and long 

 rows of birches, willows, and- alders bordering the streams 



