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140 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
that will be found in the woodlands, or even by the wayside, 
except when it is behind a fence ; yet it constantly greets 
the rambler who has left the suburban gardens behind him, 
and in the public parks — notably the magnificent avenue of 
Bushey Park — where by contrast it exhibits itself as the 
grandest of all flowering trees. Though the stout cylindrical 
bole is short, its erect trunk towers to a height of eighty or a 
hundred feet, supporting the massive pyramid, beautiful on 
account of its fine foliage and handsome flowers alike. The 
stout branches take an upward direction at first, then stretch 
outward and curve downwards, though in winter, when relieved 
of the weight of foliage, their extremities curl sharply upward, 
and the great buds in spring are almost erect. 
These brown buds, with their numerous wraps and liberal 
coating of varnish, afford considerable interest to the suburban 
dweller in early spring. He watches their gradual swelling, 
and the polish that comes upon them through the daily melting 
of their varnish under the influence of sunshine. Then the 
outer scales fall flat, the upper parts show green and loose ; 
there is a perceptible lengthening of the shoot, which leaves a 
space between those outer wraps and the folded leaves. Next 
the leaflets separate and assume a horizontal position as they 
expand. Then probably there comes a frost, and next morning 
the leaflets are all hanging down, almost blackened, flaccid and 
dejected-looking. A warm southerly rain, followed by sunshine, 
reinvigorates them, and we see that the lengthening of the 
shoot has actually brought the incipient flower-spike clear into 
view. By about the second week in May the pyramid is clothed 
with bold handsome foliage, against which the conical spikes of 
white blossoms, tinged with crimson and dotted with yellow, 
stand out conspicuously. 
The leaves are almost circular, but broken up, finger-fashion, 
into seven toothed leaflets of different sizes, which appear to 
have started as ovals, but the necessity for not overcrowding 
