Part 30

DOGWOOD FAMILY.

CORNACEÆ.

*Bunch-berry.* Cornus Canadensis. *Dwarf Cornel.*

Found in moist woods in May and June.

A small plant from 5 to 7 inches high, with a strong fibred, 4-angled, and deeply grooved, pale green stalk.

The broad oval leaf, tapering at both ends, has many deeply-marked ribs; it has a smooth surface, and is of a yellowish-green color. The leaves are set close on the stalk, in a whorl-like cluster of 4 or 6; occasionally a second group occurs below this.

The real flowers are small, and many; bunched together in a close, flat cluster, which is surrounded by 4 large, greenish-white, petal-like leaves, giving the semblance of a single large flower, rising, on a small foot-stem, above the leaves.

The seeds of this little plant take the form of a bunch of brilliant sealing-wax-red berries, set in the center of the greenery, and nodding on the stem with their own weight.

HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY.

CAPRIFOLIACEÆ.

*Smooth-leaved Honeysuckle.* Lonicera glauca.

Found in rocky grounds and uplands during May.

A bushy, and somewhat twining shrub, leafy and tough, which grows from 3 to 5 feet high, with a gray bark, that is green when young.

The rather large leaf is oval, and broadest at the base, with a rounded tip, and an entire margin; the fibre is firm and the surface is smooth; in color it is green, silvery underneath. The leaves occur opposite each other, the upper ones growing completely together around the stalk, the lower being only partly united.

The small flower has a slender tubular corolla spreading into 2 unequal divisions, the upper broad, and 4-cleft, the lower entire, long, and narrow; in color a pale, dull tawny or red; the 5 long stamens, with their very distinct tips, are pale greenish-yellow; the long pistil is tipped with a green disc; the round calyx is minutely 5-parted, and green. The flowers, on the ends of the branches, are set close around the stalk in whorls, usually of 6, after the Honeysuckle habit.

What charm the flowers lack in fragrance, the plant makes up in the graceful curves of its partly twining stems, and in its attractive leafage.

*Maple-leaved Arrow-wood.* Viburnum acerifolium. *Dockmackie.*

Found in light, rocky woods, in May and June.

The tough, woody stalk, growing from 2 to 3 feet high, is branching, and covered with a smooth brown bark.

The broad, 3-lobed leaf much resembles a maple leaf in outline; it has, however, a soft downy surface, especially beneath,--the upper side is sometimes smooth. The leaves are set in pairs, on short foot-stems. Color green.

The small, 5-parted flower has 5 stamens, alternating with its rounded divisions. The flowers are white, and the buds pink-tinted; they grow in a flat-topped cluster, on a foot-stem springing from between the terminal pair of leaves.

In the softly diffused light of the autumn woods, its clusters of black berries, and mulberry colored leafage prove attractive to the æsthetic eye. Its habit of growth also is pleasing.

*Linnæa.* Linnæa borealis. *Twin-flower.*

Found in cool, mossy woods, and cold damp bogs; blossoming in early June.

A trailing vine with a round, rough, and woody-fibred, reddish stem, running over the ground.

The pretty, rounding leaf has a few scallops on its edge, a slightly rough surface, and a dry texture; it is evergreen, of a rich, dark green color. The leaves are in pairs, on short foot-stems.

The little bell-shaped corolla is about ½ an inch long, narrowing into a small tube at the bottom, and widening at the top where it is 5-parted; it is fine in texture, fragrant, and in color white, tinged with pink. The tiny green calyx has 5 thread-like divisions. The slender flower-stems, rising erect from the creeping stalk to a height of 3 or 4 inches, fork near the top to bear the nodding twin flowers.

*Bush Honeysuckle.* Diervilla trifida.