346 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



intervals with light gray lichens. Leaves in tnfts, or alternate 

 on the upper shoots, on short petioles, lanceolate or broader 

 towards the extremity, acute at both ends, often with a twisted 

 acnmination, margin slightly revolute, with a few appressed 

 serratures, light green and shining on both surfaces, smooth, 

 except a slight pubescence along the nerves beneath, from one 

 and a half to two and a half inches long, and one half to three 

 quarters of an inch wide. 



The staminiferous flowers are on footstalks from one third of 

 an inch to one inch in length, in the axil of the leaves or bud 

 scales ; fertile flowers on very short footstalks, in the axils of 

 the leaves. The fruit, which remains on the stem during a great 

 portion of the winter, is of a rich orange scarlet. It is solitary, 

 three or four tenths of an inch thick, on stems as long as its 

 diameter. The buds are very small. 



This plant grows in deep, wet swamps, in Cambridge, and 

 many other parts of the State, and is attractive in June from 

 the multitude of its white flowers, in autumn and winter from 

 its large scarlet berries, and at all times from the glossy lustre 

 of its leaves. 



Sp. 3. The Ink Berry. P. gldber. L. 

 Leaves and fruit figured in Abbott's Insects, I, Plate 35. 



An elegant, delicate-looking, evergreen shrub, with slender 

 branches, growing in a few sheltered places in Plymouth and 

 Hingham, to the height of from two to eight or nine feet. 



The leaves are lance-shaped or inversely lance-shaped, an 

 inch or more long, one third or one half an inch broad, tapering 

 at base, terminating in an abrupt point ; slightly reflexed at the 

 margin, with one or two large, rounded teeth on each side to- 

 wards the end, polished on both surfaces. 



The flowers are solitary, in the axils of the leaves, on thread- 

 like, minutely hairy stalks, half an inch long. The calyx ends 

 in six obtusely pointed lobes ; the corolla in six or seven 

 oblong, rounded segments, alternate with which are the white 

 stamens, ending in brown anthers. Ovary green, low, conical, 

 crowned with a broad stigma. 



