Further names are, cat's-faces (Viola tricolor), cat's-eyes (Veronica chamcaedrys), cat's-tail, the catkin of the hazel or willow, and cat's-ear (Hypochaeris maculata).

Palm Sunday receives its English and the greater part of its foreign names from the old practice of bearing palm-branches, in place of which the early catkins of the willow or yew have been substituted, sprigs of box being used in Brittany.

The catkins of the willow are in some counties known as "goslings," or "goslins,"children, says Halliwell, sometimes playing with them by putting them in the fire and singeing them brown, repeating verses at the same time.

Can you remember the address of that Mrs. Catkin?..."

Within is the catkin.

3. Branch, with catkin appearing from the bud.]

Along the rivers the alder grows into quite a fine tree, and if its catkins be picked at Christmas and are brought into the warm house, they soon blossom out and spread their green pollen over everything.

" just as he knows what the catkins on the willows are like, or the names of the butterflies: but he is capable, on occasion of "dragging it in," as in "The nebulous star we call the sun,

" [Illustration: MALE CATKIN OF WILLOW.]

"Miss Harson," asked Clara, with a perplexed face, "what are catkins?"

"Here," said her governess, reaching from the top bar of the road-fence for the lowest branch of a willow tree; "examine this catkin for yourself, and I will tell you what my Botany says of it: 'An ament, or catkin, is an assemblage of flowers composed of scales and stamens or pistils arranged along a common thread-like receptacle, as in the chestnut and willow.

"Here," said her governess, reaching from the top bar of the road-fence for the lowest branch of a willow tree; "examine this catkin for yourself, and I will tell you what my Botany says of it: 'An ament, or catkin, is an assemblage of flowers composed of scales and stamens or pistils arranged along a common thread-like receptacle, as in the chestnut and willow.

" "It's funny-looking," said Malcolm, when he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the appearance of the catkin, "but it doesn't look much like a flower: it looks more like a pussy's tail.

'Catkin' is diminutive for 'cat;' so this collection of flowers is called 'catkin,' or 'little cat.'

'Catkin' is diminutive for 'cat;' so this collection of flowers is called 'catkin,' or 'little cat.'

"Here," said Miss Harson, "is a small branch from an oak tree containing the young leaves and the catkins, which come out together; for the oak belongs, like the willow and the maple, to the division of amentaceous plants.

[Illustration: MALE CATKIN OF THE OAK.]

Those with the pistils are also in catkins, but very small, like a bud.

"Isn't it catkins?" inquired Clara, timidly.

"The walnut family," said Miss Harson, "with the ugly name Juglandaceae, are distinguished by pinnate, or compound, leaves, which have an aromatic odor when crushed, and by blossoms in catkins.

The catkins are green, from four to seven inches long, and hang from the axils of the last year's leaves.

In winter the distant copse seemed black; now it appears of a dull reddish brown from the innumerable catkins and buds.

The delicate sprays of the birch are fringed with them, the aspen has a load of brown, there are green catkins on the bare hazel boughs, and the willows have white 'pussy-cats.'

In winter the light could be seen on the other side; now catkin, bud, and opening leaf have thickened and check the view.

I made camp a few hundred yards from the road by a creek, along the banks of which grew many willows, and some little groves of box-elders and popples, which latter in this favorable locality grew eight or ten feet tall, and were already breaking out their soft greenish catkins and tender, quivering, pointed leaves: in one of these clumps I hid my wagon, and in the midst of it I kindled my camp-fire.