NATIVE TREES, ETC., FOR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES. 213 



2. There is nothing- beautiful or even strikingly characteristic 

 about their flowers, their buds, their fruit or their mode of branch- 

 ing. 



3. We don't know their names, but we know they are imported. 

 Allow me now to call your attention to a shrub that has always 



attracted me on my winter rambles by the beautiful red of its twigs 

 and branches. I refer to the red osier, or kinnikinnik, Cornus stol- 

 onifera, which is common everywhere in wet places. Along roads, 

 in parks, near garden fountains, this hardy shrub grows very 

 readily, and it is indeed an eye-treat in winter, when white, black 

 and grey are about the only color nature presents in abundance. 



Another plant I always enjoy to meet in winter and summer, is a 

 twining vine, the moonseed, Menispermum canadense, L. In sum- 

 mer its large five to seven angled leaves attract me, and in autnmn 

 and winter I admire the large clusters of conspicuous black berries. 

 The vines are very much eaten by rabbits and smaller rodents, and 

 should be protected from them in winter, or most of the vines will 

 have to grow from the roots each year. 



Another beautiful vine which is frequently found near the moon- 

 seed is the hispid greenbrier, Smilax hispida. This vine climbs 

 high by means of tendrils. It has beautiful glossy leaves, which 

 remain green and stay on the twigs until very late in autumn. The 

 black berries remain on the bush all winter. It has the lower part 

 of its vines amply protected against rodents by thickly set prickles. 

 As far as I have observed, it seems to prefer warm, moist places. 



I shall conclude with a few plants whose ornamental value is in 

 their fruit. Many people seem to be somewhat familiar with the 

 virgin's bower. Clematis virginiana. But I have to go to the woods 

 when I wish to see their beautiful woolly seed-tufts spreading- out 

 over bush and brier. Still more ornamental is the fruit of the wax 

 vine, or false bittersweet, Celastrus scandens. When you behold 

 the clusters of its red fruit on the snow, or mixed with brown oak 

 leaves or green pine needles, you cannot fail to gaze with delight 

 upon these bits of color in the sear winter landscape. The vine is 

 not at all fastidious about localities. I have found it on hot sun- 

 burnt cliffs and in cool shady gorges and in dense fertile woods. I 

 know some that twine around oaks and hickories, and others that 

 have climbed to the top of a young white pine. The fruit sets best 

 in open places and is retained all winter. 



The shrub, however, that bears our most exquisite flowers of 

 autumn and winter is the burning bush, Enonymus atropurpureus 

 It is a shrub or small tree from five to twenty feet high, with a well 

 marked main stem. The small flowers are of an odd dark purple 

 color. The fruit begins to color when the leaves begin to fall. This 

 year they were at their best about November first. The outer cover- 

 ing was then of a most exquisite red, and looked like fine velvet* 

 although it is not covered with hair of any kind. Through this 

 husk project bright crimson seeds. The whole fruit is pendulous 

 on their stems about one and a half inches long. The shrub is 

 fairly common in rich river bottoms. On the Ft. Snelling Reserva- 

 tion I know several little groves of them. I know of only one culti- 



