Winter Buds 
the tulip tree’s are a dark crimson, clothed in a. frosty 
bloom and beveled down at the tip like a chisel. The 
twigs of the dogwood are terminated by round, flat buds 
in gray, as a fencing foil is capped by its button; and the 
great brown buds of the horse chestnut, as every one 
knows, are shingled like a roof and covered neatly with 
a protective coat of varnish. Indeed, so well marked are 
the characteristics of the winter buds that an expert can 
often distinguish by them one species from another with¬ 
out the aid of leaf or flower. 
No one who loves the trees can afford to miss acquaint¬ 
ance with them in their winter moods, when they are no 
less beautiful than in summer and when the absente of 
leaves lets us into their more secret places. 
December 20. —One of the very conspicuous native 
trees at this season is the buttonwood. The bald trunks 
from which the bark scales in great patches gleam white 
for long distances in winter, and readily distinguish the 
tree from every other. The curious habit of shedding its 
bark is due to the expansion of the trunk’s girth as the 
tree grows; but, while the bark of other trees is contin¬ 
ually stretching a point to meet the demands of growing 
hosts, that of our sycamore is inelastic and unaccommo¬ 
dating, and so gets constantly pushed off the tree—a type 
of the old fogy among men who refuses to adapt himself 
to the changing needs of the time. Sycamore seeds are 
more fortunate. They are borne in compact balls, which 
swing by long stems from the upper boughs from autumn 
until spring. A branch or two of these dangling button- 
balls make a novel and interesting indoor decoration direct 
from Nature’s workshop. 
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