GETTING AC^AINTED JFITH THE TREES 



all around us? Yet who has seen the common- 

 est of them bloom in very early spring, or 

 watched the course of the peculiar winged seed- 

 pods or "keys" that follow the 

 flowers? The white or "silver" 

 maple of streets or roadsides, 

 the soft maple of the woods, is 

 one of the most familiar of 

 American trees. Its rapid and 

 vigorous growth endears it to 

 the man who is in a hurry for 

 shade, and its sturdy limbs are 

 the joy of the tree-butcher who 

 "trims" them short in later 

 years. 



Watch this maple in very 

 early spring — even before spring 

 is any more than a calendar 

 probability — and a singular 

 bloom will be found along the 

 slender twigs. Like little loose- 

 haired brushes these flowers are, coming often 

 bravely in sleet and snow, and seemingly able 

 to "set" and fertilize regardless of the weather. 

 They hurry through the bloom -time, as they 



4 



Silver maple flowers 



