142 Bulletin 145 



served it is confined to the vicinity of Burlington bay and the 

 sandy stretches just northward in the neighborhood of the mouth 

 of the Winooski river. There it forms curious mound-shaped 

 colonies, sometimes several feet across, which enlarge and elevate 

 themselves year by year by dint of capturing the drifting sand 

 in their meshwork of fine branches. The leaves are very small, 

 scale-like, and grayish from the downy hairs, characters which 

 are doubtless helpful in protecting them from sun and drought. 

 In early summer an abundance of tiny yellow blossoms trans- 

 form each tuft into a mound of gold. This plant, like the smaller 

 red-root, is an interesting evidence of the relation of the Cham- 

 plain flora to that of the sea shore and the Great Lakes, since it 

 occurs nowhere else between these points. 



MEZEREUM FAMILY. THYMELAEACEAE 



This is a rather curious group of plants distinguished by 

 a bark of great toughness and acridity. Two representatives 

 are to be included for Vermont. 



LEATHERWOOD. Dtfca paktstns L. 



This is often called moosewood in Vermont. It is a low, 

 much branched shrub of three to five feet in height, frequent in 

 low moist woodlands. The pale greenish-yellow flowers, about 

 one-half inch long, appear in early spring 

 making the bush temporarily conspicuous, but 

 they rapidly fade and fall as the leaves ap- 

 pear. The leaves are smooth and handsome, 

 green above, pale and slightly downy beneath. 

 The bark is the most remarkable development 

 of its kind among our native plants. It is 

 very thick and consists of long interlaced 



fibres of surprising strength. So touffh is it 

 Leather Wood, X y. , , • , , ^ 



'that the united strength of two men 



will scarcely break the bark removed from a well developed 



