they stay long, apparently, the transition from flower to fruit being
very gradual. I mind me of a sycamore I pass every winter day, with its
dead fruit-clusters, a reminiscence of the flower-racemes, swinging in
the frosty breeze, waiting until the spring push of the life within the
twigs shoves them off.

To be ready to recognize this maple at the right time, it is well to
observe and mark the difference between it and the Norway in the summer
time, noting the leaves and the bark as suggested above.

[Illustration: Flowers of the ash-leaved maple]

Another maple that is different is one variously known as box-elder,
ash-leaved maple, or negundo. Of rapid growth, it makes a lusty,
irregular tree. Its green-barked, withe-like limbs seem willing to grow
in any direction--down, up, sidewise--and the result is a peculiar
formlessness that has its own merit. I think of a fringe of box-elders
along Paxton Creek, decked in early spring with true maple flowers on
thread-like stems, each cluster surmounted by soft green foliage
apparently borrowed from the ash, and it seems that no other tree could
fit better into the place or the season. Then I remember another, a
single stately tree that has had a great field all to itself, and stands
up in superb dignity, dominating even the group of pin-oaks nearest to
it. 'Twas the surprising mist of bloom on this tree that took me up the
field on a run, one spring day, when the running was sweet in the air,
but sticky underfoot. The color effect of the flowers is most delicate,
and almost indescribable in ordinary chromatic terms. Don't miss the
acquaintance of the ash-leaved maple at its flowering time, in the very
flush of the springtime, my tree-loving friends!

I have not found a noticeable fragrance in the flowers of the box-elder,
such as is very apparent where there is a group of Norway maples in
bloom together. The red maples also give to the air a faint and
delightfully spicy odor, under favorable conditions. May I hint that the
lusty box-elder, when it is booming along its spring growth, furnishes
a loose-barked whistle stick about as good as those that come from the
willow? The generous growth that provides its loosening sap can also
spare a few twigs for the boys, and they will be all the better for a
melodious reason for the spring ramble.

[Illustration: The ash-leaved maples in bloom]

The striped maple of Pennsylvania, a comparatively rare and entirely
curious smal