Early in spring the Rowan buds appear, fat woolly buds covered with grey cottony down. The young leaves (3) are carefully packed inside among plenty of cotton wool, and very downy they look when they first come out. Each leaflet is toothed round the edge, and is dark glossy green above and much paler green underneath. These leaves remain on the tree till late in autumn, then when the frost touches them with its icy fingers they change to wonderful shades of gold and scarlet and pink, and they fall with the October winds. The Rowan tree flowers (2) blossom in May, and they grow in dense dusters, each flower at the end of a small stalk. There are many small stalks, all about the same height, and they branch again and again from the main stem, forming a thick cluster. The flowers are very delightful, though they lack the snowy beauty and have none of the delicate scent of the Hawthorn. Each Rowan flower has five green sepals and five creamy white petals. These are placed round the end of the flower stalk, which is slightly swollen, and inside this swelling lies hidden the seed-vessel; you can see three sticky threads rising from it in the centre of the ring of petals. There is a circle of yellow-headed stamens within the petal ring. By the end of June the Rowan flowers have faded and the creamy petals strew the ground. But the tree does not only depend for its beauty on the creamy flowers or on the changing leaves. The swollen flower stalks have been growing all summer, and now the end of each stalk has become a small round berry (3), and a dense cluster of these berries hangs in a bunch from the main stem. In autumn these berries turn a rich yellow red, and very brilliant they look among the dark green leaves. Song birds love these Rowan berries, and so long as any remain on the tree the blackbird and thrush will be its constant visitors. When corn was scarce in the hard winters of long ago these Rowan berries were dried and made into flour. Many people to-day make them into jelly, which is a rich golden colour, but has rather a bitter taste. The wood of the Rowan tree is very tough, and is principally used for making poles. PLATE XXVII THE HAWTHORN “Mark the fair blooming of the Hawthorn tree, Who, finely clothed in a robe of white, Fills full the wanton eye with May’s delight.” --Chaucer. We cannot think of the Hawthorn as one of our noble forest trees, like the Oak and the Beech; it is dear to us as a village tree, a friendly, bushy tree which has grown in our garden, or in the fields and meadows close to our country cottages. We remember the long sunny May days when we gathered armfuls of its lovely blossoms, and the frosty autumn mornings when its berries shone like rubies on the bare, wind-stripped branches. It has always been in close touch with our lives, and it has left many pictures graven deep in our memory.