?10 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
in summer, but making the brightest touches of color in the winter 
landscape. 
Where the bluffs near the river, we find the Burning Bush. The small 
flowers are dark purple. It is particularly ornamental in the autumn, not 
only for the abundance of crimson, drooping fruit, which remaing fora 
long time, but also for the bright colored leaves. 
More common on the river banks is the Nine-bark, with white flower- 
clusters or purple seed-pods scattered along the branches. 
The Button-bush isa moisture-loving shrub, since we always find it 
near streams. It has balls of white flowers hanging by a short stem, 
among the glossy leaves. 
Then there is the Shrubby St. John’s-wort, the yellow flowers borne in 
late summer. 
The False Indigo is another shrub of the river banks, and though com- 
mon, it is beautiful in foliage and in flower. It has pinnate leaves of 
dark green, and rich purple flowers, which are peculiar in having also 
purple anthers. 
The Lead Plant is a dwarf shrub of the prairies. The violet purple 
flowers with their golden anthers are a pretty contrast to the whiteness 
of the closely crowded leaflets. 
The beautiful Wild Roses of the different species are everywhere. 
A shrub which seems to thrive well in all soils, even the dryest, is the 
New Jersey Tea. 
One of the most rare shrubs of the state is the Witch Hazel,that mystic 
plant whose fringe of yellow petals appears in late autumn after the fall 
of the summer foliage. These feathery winter blooms ripen the follow- 
ing summer, when the seeds are discharged in a peculiar and forcible 
manner. / 
The Sumachs are all attractiveshrubs. The Staghorn is often almost 
tree-like in its tropical appearance. 
The Smooth Sumach is much smaller. It holds the great bunches of 
red seeds all winter on the brown branches. But they are more noticed 
because of the gay hues which add so much to the autumn scenery. In 
this respect, the Dwarf Sumach is perhaps the finest, making striking 
points of color, when the fern-like leaves of scarlet are richly massed 
against dark backgrounds. 
Our native climbers make every woodland scene more beautiful. The 
Wild Grape and Woodbine clamber up the tree trunks, draping the 
branches in a luxuriant mass of graceful festoons; or the Bitter-sweet, 
by its clinging grasp winds itself about some shrub or tree, hanging its 
racemes of scarlet and orange pods from boughs, where all winter they 
remain, making little patches of color among the more somber shades, 
Then there are the interwoven tangles of the Common Virgin’s Bower, 
which trails over shrubs with its multitude of white flowers or plume-like 
fruit. 
A much more rare Virgin’s Bower climbs about the shady rocks of the 
bluff-sides. It has trifoliate leaves, and sinyle, large purple flowers; the 
fruit is plumose. } 3 
Here too the Greenbriar, supporting itself by a pair of tendrils to 
each leaf, sometimes reaches the top ofa tree. The leaves are smooth 
and shining, the umbles of flowers are greenish, the fruit is blue-black. 
