Vermont Shrubs and Woody Vinks 189 



6. Leaf-stalks smooth and longer (one-half inch or more; leaves 



smooth except for some hairs about base and angles of veins 

 underneath Toothed arrow-wood. 



7. Leaves with long-tapering acute apex and sharply-toothed mar- 



gins; mature berries one-half inch or more long. .Sheep-berry. 

 7. Leaves with rounded or obtuse pointed apex; margins dull- 

 toothed or entire; berries one-fourth inch long. .. .Withe-rod. 



HIGH CRANBERRY-BUSH. Vtbumtim opuliis L- var. ameri- 

 caniim (Mill.) Ait. 



This plant has an upright bushy habit and is from five to ten 

 feet in height. It is scattered through swamps and low moist 

 woodlands, especially along streams but, if transplanted, will 

 grow well in dry soil. It is rendered conspicuous by flower, fruit 

 and leaf. The leaves are strongly three-lobed, usuallyt with 

 spreading lobe-tips. The blossoms open in May or early June in 

 clusters three to four inches across, rendered showy by the large 

 white marginal flowers, one-half inch or more in diameter. The 

 berries pass from a green through yellowish tints to a bright red 

 in ripening and are not only showy during the autumn but may 

 cling to the branches through the winter. They have a single 

 large flat stone, a pleasant acid flavor similar to that of the true 

 cranberry and are sometimes used as a substitute for it in sauce 

 and pastry. Some medicinal properties are attributed to this plant. 

 The native shrub is frequently used for ornamental planting and 

 well deserves usage. The common snowball-bush or guelder-rose, 

 so much grown for ornament, is a horticultural variety of this 

 same species, but is of European ancestry. It dififers only in 

 having all the flowers of the cluster showy and sterile and hence 

 forms no fruit. 



FEw-FLOwERED CRANRERRY-BUSH. Vtburtium paucvHorum Raf. 



This is a sub-alpine species closely allied to the last. It is a 

 low straggling shrub, two to four feet in height, found only on 

 the two higher mountains, Mansfield and Killington, in the 



