White and Greenish 



in spires, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the 

 same from footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt 

 our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our wonder." 

 Doubtless light is the factor with the greatest effect in determin- 

 ing the position of the leaves on the stem, if not their shape. 

 After plenty of light has been secured, any aid they may render 

 the flowers in increasing their attractiveness is gladly rendered. 

 Who shall deny that the brilliant foliage of the sumacs, the 

 dogwood, and the pokeweed in autumn does not greatly help 

 them in attracting the attention of migrating birds to their fruit, 

 whose seeds they wish distributed ? Or that the clustered leaves 

 of the dwarf cornel and Culver"s-root, among others, do not set 

 off to great advantage their white flowers which, when seen by 

 an insect flying overhead, are made doubly conspicuous by the 

 leafy background formed by the whorl? 



Button-bush ; Honey-balls ; Globe-flower ; I 



Button-ball Shrub; River-bush .- 



L ^ ^ ! 



{Cephalanihus occidentalis) Madder family i 



/%'Z£/<?;'i'— Fragrant, white, small, tubular, hairy within, 4-parted, \ 



the long, yellow-tipped style far protruding ; the florets | 



clustered on a fleshy receptacle, in round heads (about i in. 1 



across), elevated on long peduncles from leaf-axils or ends I 



of branches. Stem: A shrub 3 to 12 ft. high.. Leaves: \ 



Opposite or in small whorls, petioled, oval, tapering at the \ 



tip, entire. 



Preferred Babitat—^tside streams and ponds ; swamps, low ^ 



ground. 



Flowering Season — ^June— September. 



nisiribution—^^QV^ Brunswick to Florida and Cuba, westward to 

 Arizona and California. 



Delicious fragrance, faintly suggesting jessamine, leads one j 

 over marshy ground to where the button-bush displays dense, 

 creamy- white globes of bloom, heads that Miss Lounsberry aptly 



likens to " little cushions full of pins." Not flir away the sweet \ 



breath of the white-spiked clethra comes at the same season, j 



and one cannot but wonder why these two bushes, which ! 



are so beautiful when most garden shrubbery is out of flower, i 



should be left to waste their sweetness, if not on desert air exactlv, 1 



on air that blows Hir from the homes of men. Partially shaded I 



and sheltered positions near a house, if possible, suit these water 1 



lovers admirably. Cultivation only increases their charms. We ] 



251 I 



