FLOWERING SHRUBS. 



129 



A most perfect specimen of the English White-thorn may be 

 seen at Port Hope on the lawn at the residence of C Kirkhoffer, Esq., 

 at the western side of the town ; it was in full flower when I saw it, and 

 formed one of the most beautiful objects I ever saw, it was worth going 

 miles to look upon it, and to inhale the sweetness of its abundant 

 white blossoms. 



There appears to have been little attempt made to cultivate our 

 Hawthorns as hedge plants, though one might naturally suppose that 

 such would have been adopted in places where the difficulty and expense 

 of obtaining rail-timber is now being sensibly felt by the farmer. The 

 Cedar and Hemlock are largely used for garden enclosures. Why not 

 try the Hawthorn also ? 



S.MALL Cranberry— F<76y/;«//w Oxycoccus (L.) 



There's not a flower but shews some touch 



In freckle, freck or stain, 



Of His unrivalled pencil. — Hemans 



There is scarcely to be found a lovelier little plant than the 

 common Marsh Cranberry. It is of a trailing habit, creeping along the 

 ground, rooting at every joint, and sending up little leafy upright stems, 

 from which spring long slender thready pedicels, each terminated by a 

 delicate peach-blossom-tinted flower, nodding on the stalk, so as to 

 throw the narrow pointed petals upward. The leaves are small, of a 

 dark myrtle-green, revolute at the edges, whitish beneath, unecjually 

 distributed along the stem. The deep crimson smooth oval berries are 

 collected by the squaws and sold at a high price in the Fall of the year. 



There are extensive tracts of low, sandy, swampy flats, in various 

 portions of Canada, covered with a luxuriant growth of low Cran- 

 berries. These spots are known as Cranberry Marshes, and are 

 generally overflowed during the Spring ; many interesting and rare 

 plants ar^ found in these marshes, with Mosses and Lichens not to be 

 found elsewhere, low evergreens of the Heath family, and some rare 

 plants belonging to the Orchidaceje such as the beautiful Grass 

 Pink {Calogogon pulchellits) and Calypso borealis. 



Not only is the fruit of the low Cranberry in great esteem for tarts 

 and preserves, but it is considered to possess valuable medicinal 

 properties, having been long used in cancerous affections as an outward 

 application. The berries in their uncooked state are acid and power- 

 fully astringent. 



This fruit is successfully cultivated for the market in many parts of the 

 Northern States of America, and is said to repay the cost of culture in 

 a very profitable manner. 



