Among the blossoms are the pods in clusters, gaping wide if the seeds are shed; closed tight, with little monkey faces, if not yet open. The harvest of witch hazel seeds is worth going far to see. Damp weather delays this most interesting little game. Dry frosty weather is ideal for it.
Go into a witch hazel thicket on some fine morning in early November and sit down on the drift of dead leaves that carpet the woods floor. The silence is broken now and then by a sharp report like a bullet striking against the bark of a near-by trunk, or skipping among the leaves. Perhaps a twinge on the ear shows that you have been a target for some tiny projectile, sent to its mark with force enough to hurt.
See [page 111]
BARK, BLOSSOM, FRUIT, AND WINTER FLOWER BUDS OF THE FLOWERING DOGWOOD
See [page 116]
THE MOUNTAIN ASH
The flat, crowded cluster of tiny white flowers is set in a
whorl of dark-green leaves in May or June