Martinmas Summer 379 
see, in the centre of the larger branches, so that 
the erring buds can only draw upon a few neighbor- 
ing cells of the plant-tissue. When the ill-timed 
growth has exhausted these very limited resources 
it will cease, whether it is checked by the cold 
winds of autumn or not. 
As for the young leaves, so rash and so ‘‘ forth- 
putting,’’ Mother Nature recently tucked them up, 
all snug and safe, to sleep till spring. 
As this summer’s foliage falls we begin to see 
myriad buds studding the boughs, and every bud is 
a wind-rocked cradle for next year’s baby-leaves 
or flowers. 
The bare and silent woods are full of sweet mute 
promises of spring. Beneath the purple scales of 
the elder-buds we can find the blossom-cluster, 
already perfect though it is no larger than a pea. 
Next spring’s ‘‘ pussies’’ are formed and ready 
in the large golden-green buds which stud the 
twigs of the swamp-willows. And on the birch 
and alder branches, among the little cones which 
ripened last summer, are the staminate catkins 
which will shake out their gold to the April breezes. 
But all, if they be wise, will ‘‘ lie low’’ till the sun 
returns from the South. 
| The tender spring-flowers which come in confid- 
