Among the Trees at Elmridge

erness to take their first lesson in the study of wild flowers, they saw also some other things which made

eering curiously at a clump of trees that seemed to have been touched with gol

houted at

nds like a Japanese fan. Where a

Are you looking up into the sky for them? There is a clump of golden willows right

he mark, after all, and that they were very pretty. Little Edith was part

TKIN OF

rose-colored veils, but there will be no leaves until these queer flowers have dropped. If we look closely at the twigs and branches, we shall see that they are glossy and polished, as though they had been varnished and then brightened with color by the painter's brush. It is the flowing of the sap tha

ara, with a perplexed f

assemblage of flowers composed of scales and stamens or pistils arranged along a common thread-like receptacle, as in the chestnut and willow. It is a kind of calyx, by some classed as a mode of inflorescence (or flowering

roughly acquainted with the appearance of the catkin, "but it do

in' is diminutive for 'cat;' so this collection

l them 'pussy-tai

ecies, some old trees have wonderful stories connected with them, while many in tropical countries are so wonderful in themselves that they do not need stories to make them in

tnut tree," said M

ason for nuts?" asked

sitive reply to this; a

e every day, and of the uses to which many of them are put, to say nothing of many famil

anut tree," su

and it is only the inhabitants of the countries where they grow who look upon these trees as necessaries; but we will take them up in their turn. And first let us find out what w

called deciduous

and plants. Persistent, or permanent, leaves remain on the stem and branches all through the changes of season, like the leaves of the pine and box, while evergreens look fresh through th

llows, what do they mean? Do the trees really cry? I sometime

lly," said Malcol

tree are particularly beautiful, and 'willowy' is often used for 'graceful,' as meaning the same thing. Its language is 'sorrow,' and it is often seen in burial-grounds and in mourning-pictures. 'We remember it in sacred history, associating it with the rivers of Babylon,

willows that we saw

ickly; "they just stuck up st

golden verdure among the still-naked trees of the forest or orchard. 'When Spring has closed her delicate flowers,' says a bright writer, 'and the multitudes that crowd around the footsteps of May have yielded their places to the brighter host of June, the

WILLOW (

e, then," said Edith; "I like to s

es it look so; and we can make just such sunshine ourselves when it rains, or when there is dullness of any sor

caressing the hand that

s," said Malcolm, in a comi

e sunshine with them, but she added that such people are always considerate for others. Malcolm wondered a little

le of God. The flowers of the willow are of two kinds--one bearing stamens, and the other pistils--and each grows upon a separate plant. When the ovary, at the base of the pistil, is ripe, it opens by two valves and lets out, as through a door, multitudes of small seeds covered with a fine down, like the seeds of the co

Clara. "And how funny they must

understand that last verse of the first chapter of the Bible: 'And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.' The bees, too, are attracted by the willow catkins, but they do not want the down. On mild days whole swarms of them may be seen reveling in the sweets of th

made of willow tre

cularly skillful in weaving the supple wands of the willow. They even made of these slender stems little boats called 'coracles,' in

t the North American Indians. "But isn't it strange, Miss Harson, that the Ind

battle-shields, and even for the manufacture of ropes as well as baskets. The rims of cart-wheels, too, used to be made of willow, as now they are hooped with iron; so, you see, it is a strong wood as w

store. Autumn is the season for him to ply his trade, and he cuts the willow rods down and ties them in bundles. He then sets them up on end in standing water to the depth of a few inches. Here they remain

RD WILLOW

les. Another way is to draw the rod through two pieces of iron joined together, and with one end thrust into the ground to make it stand upright. The willow-peeler sits down before his instrument and merely thrusts the rod between the two pieces of iron and draws

skets?" asked Clara and Edit

the Indian women making baskets when papa took us to Maine last summer, and you noticed how very quickly they did it, beginning with th

there is anything else that

ter, 'may be known from a distance by the cloud of smoke that hovers over it, and that must make it rather unhealthy. It is sometimes a small dome-shaped hut made of green turf, and, except for the difference of the material, might remind us of the h

ked Malcolm, "if the charcoal is burned

as does any one else, and he makes his fire outside of the house, puts a rude fence around it and lets it smoke away like a huge pipe. The hut is more or less en

tone, "I don't see what they do with it all.

use it is 'just like a girl,' for it is quite as much like a boy not to know things which he has never been taught, and you must remember that you have t

, after an awkward silence, "it

aid Miss Harson, "for she is supplied with kindling-wood f

outh of Europe, where a brass vessel supplies the place of a grate or stove. Quantities of it are consumed in steel-and iron-works, in preserving meat and other food, a

ome remote places, where knowledge is limited, it has been thought to come from the clouds. But we, who have learned something about these aphides[1], know that it comes from their little green bodies, and that the ants often carry the insects

s, by the author. Presbyte

s grow everywhe

own garden, and it would never have existed but for the laziness of its owner. Nothing would have induced any of the natives to take the trouble to plant a tree, and therefore the willow had not been planted. But it happened, a long-time ago, that a native had fetched a log of wood from a distance, to make into a bowl when he should feel in the

as too short; but their governess laughingly said that, as ther

WILLOW (Sali

ptive Jews, 'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.' 'The poet valued highly the small slender twigs, as associated with so much that was interesting, and he untwisted the basket and planted one of the branches in the ground. It had some tiny buds upon it, and he

ut what odd leaves they have, Miss Harson!--so narrow an

ix Babylonica. It was considered one of the handsomest trees of the East, and is particularly mentioned among those which God commanded the Israelites t

WEEPIN

olm

branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of

idered by the poets as an emblem of woe and desertion, and this idea probably came from the weeping of the captive Jews under the willows of Babylon. The branches of the Salix Babylonica often droop so low as to touch the ground, and bec

illow!" said Clara, thoughtfully. "I wonde

Israel found them interesting, for he 'spake of trees, from the cedar tre