UNAPPRECIATED FLOWERS 
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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 
