weeks its branches are full of a chattering, excited crowd of 
greedy birds eating the fruit as fast as it ripens. In autumn 
the leaves color in all shades from the palest blush to deep 
maroon and hang long after many of the other trees are bare. 
The wild Plum is one of the earliest of our small trees to 
bloom and its intricate branches are literally clothed with tiny 
white flowers which give the look of freshly fallen snow on the 
angular black twigs. It was the Chinese species of Plum which 
gave the potter the idea of the so-called Hawthorn decoration. 
The angular lines in the blue ground are supposed to represent 
the cracking of winter ice in the spring sun and the white 
Mume blossoms are drawn in boldly as if to say that spring-time 
were the stronger of the two. 
Thanks to the indefatigable Siberian and Chinese explorers, 
when we come to the Apple family we are bewildered by the 
innumerable species, each of which we decide after much reflec- 
tion we must have, as without that especial one there would be 
some break in our flowering season. The erect Mains baccata, 
the ends of its branches all pointed up and covered with white 
or slightly pink flowers, is perhaps a little formal in outline but 
always lovely. This tree too is very popular with the birds as 
the microscopic apples, either cherry colored red or yellow, are 
eaten during the winter, if indeed they are allowed to hang so 
long. Mollis floribunda and Malus spectabilis we are sure we 
cannot do without. The flowers of the first, floribunda, are rose- 
colored; the second, spectabilis, a trifle lighter; and the round 
headed Mains toringo grows almost like one of our native Thorn 
trees. These foreigners are of course all very well in their way, 
but they must not tempt us to forget our own wild Crab, the 
sweet scented Malus coronaria. This flowers later than the others 
and its large pink flowers are quite as beautiful as those that 
come from far away. It we are limited as to space one of these 
apples will be all that we can plant and if this be so, should we 
not use our' own Crab ? I fancy few of us have forgotten those 
large slices of bread and butter and Crab apple jelly which were 
entirely forbidden by the Olympians and which were 
surreptitiously given us out of the pantry window in the middle 
of the afternoon. 
Our Dogwood and Judas trees following the earlier Spice 
bush and Shad bush make our woods in May more beautiful 
than any others in the temperate zone. Not even the Thorns of 
the English hedge rows can compare with the snowy softness 
of the Dogwood, which on still, sunny spring days seems to 
float in the air layer after layer, till as we look through the 
woods, the distance is still white with their unearthly beauty. 
The Judas tree likes less to be moved than any of these of which 
we have been talking, so I always try to plant small ones as they 
check much less badly than the larger plants. If the budding 
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