. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers; . dance! On with the dance! seems tohave been the cry during all these weeks, until now thewoods are full of their wild capers. It is no mere quietand contained exuberance now, but a veritable balmasque, with reel and rigadoon, in which no two of theparticipants seem to be of the same mind in whim orcostume or etiquette, while half of them have literallylost their heads, and the other half their characters, sothat I fancy their own mother-tree abovethem would scarcely recognize the flutter- ^^^ ing progeny
. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers; . dance! On with the dance! seems tohave been the cry during all these weeks, until now thewoods are full of their wild capers. It is no mere quietand contained exuberance now, but a veritable balmasque, with reel and rigadoon, in which no two of theparticipants seem to be of the same mind in whim orcostume or etiquette, while half of them have literallylost their heads, and the other half their characters, sothat I fancy their own mother-tree abovethem would scarcely recognize the flutter- ^^^ ing progeny that she sowed upon last ,-^_ summers breeze. They are indeed a *, ^ droll and whimsical lot, this troop ^■■. beneath the maple-tree. Surelythis pretty revelry is more thanseeming. It is not easy to con-sider it as a mere exhibition ofgerminating seeds. To the poetand the philosopher it brings itsmost precious to the botanist?Considered as mere quick-ening seeds, they offermany interest-ing facts to the \student; andinasmuch asthey illustratethe beautifulplan of seed-. QUICKENING SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 2/ germination in general, it will repay us to learn the les-son which they teach. Here in this single group we find the baby maples inevery condition of growth, from the bursting samarastanding on its head against the dry leaves, through allstages of vegetation, to the tiny tree with a half-dozenor more perfect leaves. A few of the infants still re-tain their telltale winged caps, and are thus easily iden-tified; but the group contains a number of intermediateforms between this and the leafy specimens which, butfor their company, would hardly be recognized. Herein the foreground is a winged individual which hasmatured its root and stem, and stands alone, gettingitself in position for a more ambitious spread above,while directly above it are two others which are throw-ing off their swaddling-clothes. All of these are plainlymaples; but what of the three which keep t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
