UNAPPRECIATED FLOWERS 15 



the Soft Maples, for the male and female flowers are 

 sometimes seen on adjacent branches of the same 

 tree. And on rare occasions a little bunch of co-eds 

 will appear, surrounded on all sides by their vigorous, 

 crowding brothers. Although these Maples scatter 

 their seeds and germinate before summer dries the 

 ground, the bud scales strewn about do not indicate 

 that the flowers have fulfilled their mission. Early 

 birds have missed the delicacies usually provided by 

 the season, and have turned in their extremity to the 

 unpalatable buds. 



Elm flowers are also opening in favoured localities. 

 They are shy blossoms, and, like some of the most 

 elusive warblers of summer, prefer to remain partly 

 hidden in the tops. There the swollen buds are now 

 visible against the cold grey sky, and occasionally 

 on a more ambitious limb the rough, uneven clusters 

 show where the flowers have actually unfolded. If 

 their delicate stigmas do not succumb to the cold 

 they will soon be strewing the ground with round- 

 winged seeds. 



Alders by the suburban streams are bringing a far 

 different variety of floral offerings. The rigid catkins 

 that were as hard and lifeless as thorns through the 

 winter seem suddenly to have thawed out with the 

 return of spring. They have become large, loose, 

 elongated, and flexible, and as they sway about with 

 every passing wind, the bright, yellow pollen shakes 



