STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



Even in the middle of winter the red maple 

 is true to its distinctive characteristic of color, 

 and one marvels to find so much red in its 

 buds and twigs. The gray trunks are in fine 

 contrast, and accentuate the color, and the 

 curving tips of the branches, with their delicate 

 twigs and graceful outlines, give the trees great 

 beauty. 



The red maple is one of the very first trees 

 to bloom in the early spring, and then its 

 color is conspicuous, for, as Lowell says, it 

 "crimsons to a coral reef." The flowers are 

 sweet scented, and the carrying of pollen is 

 done on a wholesale plan over the tree by little, 

 inconspicuous insects, which carry the pollen 

 dust from flower to flower. 



In the autumn this tree is one of the first to 

 turn, and its brilliant red leaves in the low 

 swamp lands, beginning often the last of'Au- 

 gust or early September, invariably startle one 

 with a swift premonition of winter. " How 

 early the fall has come this year ! " some one 

 usually says, and no one realizes it is just the 

 habit of early maturity pecuhar to that par- 

 ticular red maple. It is a tree closely associated 

 with Thoreau, for we read that he spent much 

 time in extracting sugar from its sap, against 

 the wishes of his more practical-minded father, 



24 



