56 
AS THE YEAR GROWS 
mission, and will be transformed into drooping and 
swaying bunches of winged seeds as the leaves 
develop* The Soft Maple and Silver Maple flowers 
fell several weeks ago, and the seeds are already 
developing. Elms flowered still earlier, and some of 
their seed is ready to be cast on the wind. But their 
flowering and seeding in the upper branches have 
passed unnoticed, except for the scales of the buds 
strewn on the pavement. The young leaves are 
unfolding from the flower clusters of the Horse- 
chestnut. The glistening, brown, thorn-like buds of 
the beech are elongating and giving in their changing 
tints a promise of coming foliage. Even the reluctant 
Oaks unfold their lobed and half-formed leaves to 
dangle their pendent flowers in the fertilising breeze, 
while the branches retain some clinging bunches of 
last year's leaves. The Basswood refuses absolutely 
to display a trace of the richest of all greens concealed 
in its dark-red buds. Among the evergreen tassels of 
the White Pine the flowers appear as bristling tails 
of lighter green. They will fill the air and the sluggish 
water with their pollen, perpetuating the childish 
belief that sulphur comes down in thunderstorms. 
Feathered visitors from the south found the trees 
entirely unprepared. They looked about as if they 
had arrived in the house-cleaning season. A pair of 
Robins braved the embarrassment and annoyance 
of a passing crowd of spectators and built their nest 
