/ARDLY a season passes with- 

 out my being in receipt of one 

 or more inquiries, personal or 

 by letter, concerning this snowy brood which 

 haunts the alders in the swamp or along the 

 road-side, and which envelops the smaller branches 

 in its dense, feathery fringe. It is often one of 

 the most frequent and conspicuous incidents in 

 a country walk during its season, and its season 

 ranges from its height in early summer until the 

 frost. And yet how few there are, even of those, 

 perhaps, who pass it every day, who have any defi- 

 nite idea of its character ! 



I know one rustic who claimed that it was 

 "dry-rot," or a "speeshy of mould "; but the wool- 

 ly phenomenon is commonly dismissed by the 

 rural mind with the observation that it is " bugs 



