36 FAMILIAR TREES 
“acuminate,” as it is technically termed—not egg- 
shaped and tapering gradually or “acute,” as are 
those of the Pear—and they dry brown, not black, 
when dead. 
Far beyond the pale white beauty of the Pear- 
blossom, however, which seems cold in the yet early 
spring, is that of the delicately blushing, rosy and 
white-streaked, round buds of the Apple. Even in 
May, that time of flowers, when— 
“ The meadow by the river seems a sea 
Of liquid silver with the cuckoo-flowers ”— 
that season of Marsh-marigolds and Cowslips, of wild 
Hyacinths and purple Orchids, of the Horse-chest- 
nut, the Lilac, and the Guelder-rose, of Pzonies and 
Tulips—there is no more beautiful sight than the 
far-stretching orchards of Somerset, Hereford, or 
Worcester. In the exquisite folding of the petals in 
each short-stalked flower over its golden heart of 
stamens, we have a bloom far more becoming to an 
English bride than the ivory pallor of the exotic 
orange-flower. When we look for the deeper meaning 
of and reason for all this lavished beauty, we must 
confess ourselves as yet to be much ata loss. The 
succession of variously-hued flowers as spring ad- 
vances into summer, and summer into autumn (so 
that blue flowers, as a rule, precede white ones, whilst 
these in théir turn open before the purple, yellow, and 
red blossoms of the summer), would seem to be due 
in some imperfectly explained manner to the increas- 
ing intensity of the sun’s light as it travels northward 
from the winter to the summer solstice. 
In the Apple-blossom the stigmas are, as a rule, 
