46 



My Garden Summer-Seat. 



it extrudes over the little buds formed in later autumn, 

 in preparation for the next spring, which dries and 

 hardens, and is a most efficient protection for them 

 against the frosts and snows, often glittering like amber 

 between you and the sunset, it has a kind of honey 

 in which it encases them very effectively, through all 

 the cold and frost ; and when the sun once more begins 

 to look forth with a certain heat, this melts away and 

 drops to the ground in the most minute globules like 

 dew when the tree is stirred. Hence the truth of the 

 line — 



" The sycamore drops honey when 'tis stirred." 



But the seed of the tree is even more curious and wonder- 

 ful than the bud As I have sat here in later September 



and October, I have 

 * :i ' «'.,"- seen them part from 



the treeandcomewith 

 a peculiar wavering 

 kind of flight on the 

 wind. These seeds 

 arecalled samaras, be- 

 cause they are really 

 winged, or perhaps 

 because the seed in 

 its envelope has a soft 

 furry, silky lining, 

 either from simarre, 

 a woman's dress or 

 scarf, or simarre, a 

 bishop's upper robe. 

 The wings of the 

 samara are beautifully adapted to float a heavy body, 

 which they do, as any one may see, at the right season, 



SYCAMORE TREE. 



