Show aty i i tt sy t t 1 T r nav aaby rf i i j VS rf i s i in self education through the medium of specially 1 l prepared articles by prominent instructors wa ia y aw aw 4 through woods and E 3 4 pastures S BY ABBIE SHARPE XV tree blossoms through the woods HEN spring Is here you know it you feel it tho willow boughs have long been tinted with the rising sap and there are muffled croake la tho shallow depths of the pools are offshoots off shoots of the swamp band i tho farst cf all the trees to bloom la aho red or swamp maple in march the younger branch tips am a rich dark red and many of the flowers are of the same hue though on some trees they fare a dull yellow with a suspicion of that same red perhaps the next to bloom about the lime or the Is tho apice bush lor allspice its canary colored flowers i are clustered close to its grayish brown barked stem but the leaves are too clow to keep tip with the blooms and are yet to appear A few days later the dark bare branches of a email and slender tree i show bunches of small soft leaves wild sweet crab with a white something about them it Is april and there Is not a tree which can yet show in great numbers indeed these seem as if they might be groups of leaf co which have stood up through the winter waiting to dispose of themselves to make room for the young leaves on a nearer approach wo can seo that they are really elongated drooping clust cra of puro white and thin flowers now over on the sunny crest of abo slop a tree of tho same allures us it Is farther out and looks like a belated Enow dritt against tho bine sky tho atreo Is very graceful and decorative later la june or in july all of these blooms will become delicious berries to tho principally of the birds unless tho trees are near a humans or they aro tho service berries aa frequently called t the or nana hasten sato bloom before brou trou itself its leaves the flowers have ds petals and tareo sepals but the whole Is arranged in beets of ahree the abreo inmost petals being abo smaller cm aller tho color Is pale green or yellow sometimes a dark purple tny formed into a round head tho tree if it acro not sw its slightly branched form might be bush its fruit Is alpo in Auga stand looks ilka tho half of a fat creen that the kipapa rc la quite round at both ends peeling away tho thick green ekla but deep yellow pulp cotter than abo ca table part of abo banana ia disclosed there are cat black deais interspersed its meat 1 tho has yellowish green cowers appear lne at the sarno time as the first apy leaves and mako the tree a few days os though a filmy veil had been thrown oscr it to bide the nakedness of ita branches while all of tho trees and the world around were awaking the red berried elder could not long be its leaves have been to break out and are halt grown the flowers can no longer wait and burst into bloom abc aro lika the elder of the icier except eliat they are smaller hardier and the creamy walto flowers are piled up toward a cone ln i of being flat as are those of tho midsummer aud berries which come early ere red never black near tho end of april and early in liay a of conspicuously blooming trees aborn themselves the landscape abo young lambs playing on the tender green grass of the nelds but on toward the bouses are masses and bou quota of pink and white and on the aldo of the hill above the lavender black of arco trunks and branches arc seen the boft panka and yellow greens of tho young leaves in with masses of pure white thero anro tho thorns and a great family la of them too more of th numbers find a borne in abo south la abo at this though the white or scarlet Is lu 1 sory all rc i eci blo more or less that member of the family known aa the hawthorn relative though the hawthorn has pretty pink flowers which attro inclined to be double while our american trees lean to white the scarlet fruited thorn will grow to bo a tree twenty feet high though it Is dioro often a good deal smaller it has alno big thorns over it particular ly upon its trunk there Is woe tor him who would climb to roach fallt or flower for they arc healthy thorns several inches ion the flowers are small something like cherry blossoms the fruit small bright red and shaped like a miniature apple Is only an inch in diameter in september fruit reddens the tree or falls thickly to abo ground for the crop never seems to tall there Is the scat let haw whose fruit Is much larger fand much better eatla tho dotted fruited haw Is rarer but Is found in both north and tha cockspur thorn blooms in early june to see a thorn Is to remember its slen der ness of branch and its which protects it from being broken or devoured by hungry animals I 1 the flowering dogwood opens its flowers before its leaves are well grown it Is more familiar to many on account of ita decorativeness its walto flowers look like four large white petals around a yellowish green center but the same white petals are nothing but leaflets changed from green to white which were so eager to push themselves out and imitate the petals that they throat even the little sepals out 0 the way and placed them as brownish spines on their tips the real flowers are grouped close together seeming like the yellowish green center another tree which deserves a higher place in the art designs and would perhaps have it but tor its stiffness and refusal to cling freshly to its branches after it Is brought from the woods Is the redbud its limbs showing only here and there a first leaf are a beautiful gray brown color and close along all over it are sprays of flowers hanging this way aad that seeming like bunches of small sweet peas of a purplish pink they are very dainty and pretty far out in the woods with its delicious fragrance Is the wild egweet crab beside a grove of crabs one will stand at having so many senses gratified at once sight smell add 1 we consider the soft noises oc the wood bound the fresh green of the leaves is over them and mists of exquisite blossoms all of that lovely apple tree pink breathe such sweetness that unconsciously ono draws deep breaths chuo satiating the eyes the wild cherry now hangs on its branches with long drooping saraya of fine flowers be tulip tree known also as abo whitewood and the poplar takes care of its leaves first peculiarly shaped they arc blunt at the end with two sharp lobes on either side and without a single jagged edge anywhere tho flowers aro like the gay tulips of the gardens though round and of a more shallow cup shape they are green toward the center to yellow and then to a vivid orange the yellowish stamen and pistils are fastened one above the other in a green cA ellke form in the center after the fashion of the magnolias there Is everywhere in may a sturdy bush with dark green pointed leaves it te not very tall and it bears round and uneven but flat clusters of white flowers this is tha arrowwood it belongs to the scattered and varied family ot the albur numa of which the snowball of the gardens Is a Is the day when the voice ot the turtle la beard in the land and the mcnell 0 the grape Is sweet if solo had lived in a zone he would have added the smell 0 the undina is sweet the american linden or common ba sawood tree grows to a fair height though never very tall its wood being white and firm 13 for cabinet making at the end of may sheltered by its stem growing upon the long protecting leaf wild cherry let Is a small cluster of very email cream colored flowene flo were later in the year tho long leaf becomes brown and etall to the stamen ot the cluster fit fruit tiny brown nuta each on a small separate stem joined to the common stem tho leaves in general 1 are large heart shaped at the bottom pointed atthe top tho edges beloff toothed the staff horn lumac Is plentiful and well known everywhere with its fuzzy yellow green sterna and flowers massed lu a thick and substantial i dark red form at tho top of the small tree in autumn its red leaves cupply the richest color in the land every arco blooms each year exactly as does each flower wishing to bato its kind only those freoa which have colored blooms havo been herein referred to but there aro the willows with their pussies and various the bitches with their catalna the oaks the ash and obbera choso whoso blooms do not obtrude and im presa upon the casual observer 1902 hy lewla D bampton on through woods and I 1 pastures i BY ABBIE V A burst of bloom spring has painted WHEN the land in her tender verdant colors and hung the trees with a green fringe our delight in the and our growing to the young season causo some of us to think less of the wild flowers because we have so many other beautiful things close at hand the most lovely ot them all Is the wild azalea or false honeysuckle of the eastern parts ot our country north and dog tooth violet bouth it is shrubby and from tareo to sir feet in height its flower is not unlike that ot the hothouse azalea that Is it does not open widely from the very the petals but holds them in a funnel form for some distance before opening wide and flat alke the dweller in the hothouse its pistil and its stamen protrude it seems strange that this should have been called abo whitsunday flower by the early dutch of new amsterdam for it Is jn bloom shortly after easter moreover its hue being a rich pink or at least pink and whitish it would hardly seem suitable for the whiteness of whitsunday there are too the flame colored azaleas of the mountains these flowers have only a slight fragrance but a bunch of them in a wood Is a glad eight beauty and fragrance are combined in our familiar arbutus and the may flower of the puritans widely spread as it is through north and bouth it would seem to bo an easy thing to find its pink faces peering irom the matted brown green leaves but it has been so torn up by those desiring it far sale in the city streets or for personal adornment that unless one Is initiated into the secrets of its haunts search for it means a long and often fruitless tramp it only grows wild for it will not bear transplanting the adders tongue or dog tooth violet may also make legitimate pretensions to beauty with its graceful drooping flower bells and its handsome purple spotted leaves whence the bame dog tooth is derived or worse that uncalled for rols nomer violet when it ia in form and manner of the lily family la an enigma the canterbury bell la straight aa to baem hairy and branched its rather large flowers massed along the enda arc of a bright light blue tinged with pink while choso at abo very top aro sometimes entirely of a lavender pink they are often double but when single are of an oblong hell chape and belong to the same family ag the bluebelle bluebells blue bells they are however three times as tall and much larger and coarser in every way canterbury bella naturally suggest because of the association of in the first parta of the names and not because of any resemblance in the flowers the or cap and its relative the foam flower or false ml both bloom in may and both have racemes feathery white tipping stems about a toot high tho bishops cap has ilg flowers more scattered along its stem and the petals are deeply fringed ita nama wa given it because its seed caso IB supposed to resemble abo form of a bishops headgear another relative has bloomed a little earli erthe saxifrage the name from the latin means 1 I break rock it la always found in rocky woods or pastures sometimes growing BO close against the stones that one would not that there could bo sustenance thero tor anything but fungus karly in the spring a soft ball of gray green appears above the grayish green loaves which lie flat tho thorgund round the ball moves upward and resolves itself into white arranged in a cluster branching but rather flat than otherwise supported ou ft yale green hairy another flower is the sweet cicely it loves the deep wooda nud very shady corners when we are out ticking tor the first tho woods are full ot its young fernlike fern liko leaves but they grow to be quite large though never losing their fernl ness until summer tang stems up abobo them to the height of two or three feet and bear the most fellmy flat clusters of small flowers they breathe the very spirit of the rioting young reason what a change to meet them iotte in augustl the leaves have grown coar havo broken into a dirty brownish green those delicate flowers alas have turned to stickers ready to catch our clothing as we enss the root however Is fragrant and lg said to be edible the a a foot high has a shiny slender stem along which the round bottomed pointed topped leaves are strung at intervals as it tho stem had been thrust through them at some time and some one bad put them there as a child strings its beads beside borne ot them start small branches ending in drooping llly alke straw colored bells ot flowers which are sweet scented tho groundsel resembles the yellow wild aster it Is yke a small yellow daisy and as it Is apt to be the only oua resembling that form so early in the year it Is easy to recognize ua leaves are that Is they look as if they had started out to be leaves near the main stem and had then apologized to abo stem and shrunk back after having done that several times it scorns to have remembered that it bad meant to be a real leaf and swelled itself out beautifully it la also known as the from old man because of tho white hairs on its it takes caro of its seede as the dandelion docs running across ahe pastures Is the five finger or on seeing great quantities of it one Is apt to mistake it for wild strawberries for abo leaves are much like those of the strawberry vine and they also spread by runners the has five leaves and three four or five fingers the strawberry has always three leaves finely toothed tho flowers ot the are like diminutive roses and arc bright yellow Is the french tor five fingers there are two plants which do not seem to have any striking colors about them save the green the blue and tho meadow rue the early meadow ruo has whitish green flower sometimes with a hint of cinnamon brown which seem to bo tiny bits or divisions fastened together alko the half of a ball its great beauty lies in its delicate thin leaves which arc so much like those of the maidenhair fern that one has to look the second almo to be sure which it Is the blue also Is made a little after the same fashion only you would never think of the maidenhair in connection with it there Is only one leaf on the otherwise naked flower bearing stem and as it Is much divided and without any common at the base it seems like three leaves instead of one thera is another larger leaf or collection of leaflets at the base of this stem the flowers are small and insignificant the six sepals are longer than the dull bluish petals within the plant though slender and delicate like the wood an emones reaches the height of from one to two feet these all bloom in may juno brings a new host but la one which first looks on tho world about the last of may and stays to enjoy june the blue eyed grass or in a meadow or orchard or anywhere among the grass js the it Is a little paler and than ordinary grass and the blades alt into each other in li way grass does not yet one would hardly suspect it of bearing llly alke flowers late in the afternoon in the season of its prime you will see no sign of it until upon close inspection the pale blue buds are meadow rue perceived they cannot be seen in the morning but at high noon at the warm invitation of the sun they open aldo their bright faces showing how well they anre named for small blue and yellow centered they seem like fairies boino to make fuller lie loveliness of june the flowers seem to como right out of the ends of the blades on abo thinnest little threads of stems it Is really a to meet them though they arc very abundant the majority of tho which begin to bloom in june last for many weeks through the acar t of tho summer fop tho weather being more |