FL IVERING StHRUBS. 1 1 5 



An old friend, one of the sons of a U. E. Loyalist, told nie that for 

 some years after leaving the United States (the family were from 

 Vermont) that the genuine Chinese Tea was rarely to be met with in the 

 houses of the settlers, especially with such as lived in lonely backwoods 

 settlements, that for the most part they made use of infusions of the 

 leaves of the Red-root, or New Jersey Tea, as they had learned to 

 call it, of Labrador Tea, Ledum latifolium, Sweet-Fern, Comptonia 

 asplenifolia, Mountain Mint or other aromati: herbs, or even of the 

 sprigs of the Hemlock Spruce. Many of the old folks still retain a 

 liking for the teas made from the wild herbs, and use them as diet-drinks 

 in the Spring of the year with great benefit to their healths. 



The light feathery clusters of minute white flowers of the Ceaiiothus 

 have a charming appearance among the dark green foliage, and adorn 

 the hills and valleys of the grassy Canadian plain-lands. Where the 

 soil is light loam the shrubs are lower, and the flowers somewhat smaller, 

 but very abundant, and give out a faint sweet odour. In damper, more 

 shaded spots, the flower-clusters are larger and borne on long foot- stalks. 

 The leaves of the shrub are ovate, oblong, ribbed, and toothed at the 

 edges. The root is of a deep red colour, astringent and used medicinally. 



The flavour of the leaves is slightly bitter and aromatic. I consider 

 this pretty Ceanothus to be one of the most ornamental of our native 

 flowering shrubs, and well worthy of introduction into our gardens. 

 Abundant clusters of delicate white flowers, that cover the bush during 

 the months of July and August, have the appearance of the froth of new 

 milk at a little distance. The flowers are slender, the petals hooded, 

 spreading, on slender claws longer than the calyx, which is five- 

 lobed, coloured like the petals. The seed-vessel is three-lobed, 

 splitting into three parts when dry ; the seed is round, hard and berry- 

 like. The branches and woolly stems wither and die down in iVutumn, to 

 be replaced by new shoots in the ensuing Spring. In height the shrub 

 varies from two to five feet. 



Wild Smooth Gooseberry — Ribes oxyacatitJioides (L). 



Our woods and swamps abound with varieties of the widely 

 diffused Gooseberry and Currant family, and though at present neg- 

 lected and despised, they no doubt could, by proper treatment, be made 

 valuable and serviceable to man. Of the Wild Gooseberries, there 

 are several kinds. The best and most palatable, being the smooth 

 skinned, small purple Gooseberry, Ribes oxyacanthoides ; this is the least 

 thorny of the Genus, and by cultivation, can be rendered a nice and 

 serviceable fruit for preserving and other table uses. 



