Io8 FLOWERING SHRUBS. 



plant ; but the Leatherwood may be found frequently growing on dry 

 gravelly ground, and is by no means confined to wet, marshy soil. 

 Dr. Gray says : " The name of a fountain near Thebes was applied by 

 Linnajus to this North American Genus for no imaginable reason, unless 

 because the bush frequently grows near mountain rivulets. 



This shrub is found all over the Eastern and Western parts of the 

 Dominion and has a wide northerly range. I know of no especial 

 uses excepting the one already named among the settlers in the back- 

 woods and the Indians, who use the bark as loose handles for their bark 

 baskets used in rough work. 



Fever-bush — Spice-bush — Lindem Benzoin, (Meisner). 



This highly fragrant shrub is commonly found growing in low, wet, 

 marshy ground, and is sought for by the Indians for medicinal uses ; 

 the bark and twigs (for it is in them the aroma is contained) form one 

 of their luxuries, mingled with tobacco. The spicy, sweet-scented wood 

 long retains its flavour, even when dried, and is most agreeable. The 

 bush is about four or five feet high ; the bark of the older branches 

 grey and smooth, but the young twigs and leaf:Stalks are blackish. The 

 flowers in this, as in Leatherwood, appear in umbel-like clusters in 

 April before the foliage is developed ; the blossoms are yellow, or 

 honey coloured ; the leaves entire, very smooth, darkish green, oblong 

 and pale underneath. This shrub belongs to the Laurel tribe, and is 

 nearly allied to the Sassafras. The natives make a fever-drink of the 

 twigs, besides chewing and smoking the bark. 



Trailing Arbutus — May-flower— ^//i,'"''''^ repens, (L.) 



(PLATE IL) 



The fragrant, graceful Epigcca repens, the sweet May-flower of the 

 Northern States, and of our own Canada, is too lovely to be forgotten 

 in these short floral biographies ; indeed, this pretty trailing ever-green 

 is well deserving of a place amongst the most cherished treasures of the 

 conservatory, for few exceed it in beauty, and none in fragrance. It is 

 to be found within the Pine forests, beneath trees where but a scanty 

 herbage flourishes ; and on dry, sandy and rocky ground we see its 

 ever-green, shining, ovate leaves, and delicate pink flowers, covering the 

 ground during the month of May. The Americans know it by the 

 name of May-flower, so called from its season of blossoming ; in 

 England it is a favourite green-house shrulj under the name of Trailing 

 Arbutus. The leaves rise on long foot-stalks from the somewhat 

 horizontal branches, they are unecjual in size, the largest being 



