FLOWERING SHRUBS. I39 



the bright red sprays are hardly less attractive. The fruit is unpalatable 

 for man, but is eaten by some of the water-fowl that have their haunts 

 in the lakes and inland waters. This species is the Kinnikinnic of 

 the western and prairie Indians. 



P.\RTRiDGE-BERRY— Trailing Winter-green.— il/zV^MA? repens, (L.) 



Another of our pretty red-berried creeping forest-plants, is the 

 Partridge-berry ; the flexile branchlets of this little plant spreading from 

 the joints ot the trailing stem, form a mat of dark green foliage, covering 

 unsightly patches of decaying wood, roots, and stones with many a 

 graceful wreath, as if Nature kindly placed them there to veil the rugged 

 ground with grace and beauty, in the same way as the green Ivy clothes 

 and adorns the mouldering ruin with its enduring verdure. 



Each slender leafy spray of our pretty Winter-green is terminated 

 by tubular, star-shaped, twin blossoms, which are divided at the margin 

 into five sharply pointed segments ; white, sometimes slightly tinged with 

 pink. The ovaries are united at the base of the flowers, and form one 

 double-eyed round berry for each pair of flowers ; the interior of the 

 flower-tube is hairy. The scent is sweet, faintly resembling that of the 

 White Jessamine. 



The berries remain persistent all through the Winter. They ripen 

 to brilliant scarlet in the Autumn, and so continue till the return of 

 Spring. Thus we may find fresh flowers, newly set fruit and the ripe 

 berries all on the same plant. The small round leaves are veined with 

 white, which gives a variegated look to their dark green surface. 



The berries are mealy and insipid, but are eaten by the Indian- 

 women and children as a dainty. These berries form food for the 

 Wood-Grouse, our Canadian Partridge, and for the VVoodchuck and 

 other small quadrupeds that have their haunts in our forests and cedar- 

 swamps. The elegant wreaths of dark variegated leaves and scarlet 

 berries are sometimes used by Canadian girls as ornaments for their 

 hair ; and I have seen white muslin evening. dresses, trimmed with the 

 sprays of this pretty evergreen, which had a charming eff"ect, besides 

 showing good taste and economy combined, in the fair wearers. 



High-bush Cranberry — American Guelder-Rose— 

 Viburnum Opulus, (L.) 



This fine shrub, with its large, loose cyme of white flowers, makes 

 a goodly show during the month of June, mingling its snowy blossoms 

 with the surrounding foliage of dark evergreens on the wooded banks of 

 forest streams, and along the low shores of inland lakes and islands. 



