144 History of Hingham. 



eight or nine feet in favorable situations, such as damp ditches 

 by roadsides. The white blossoms are very conspicuous. The 

 fruit is firm, close-grained, sometimes hardly edible. 



Low Blackberry (Rub us Canadensis, L.). This is a trailing, 

 thorny vine, growing in rough fields where the soil is sandy, and 

 on hillsides in all parts of the town. The fruit is juicy and 

 agreeable. 



Running Swamp Blackberry (Rubus hispidus, L.). A delicate, 

 pretty species, with shining leaves, found in marshes and dam]) 

 woods. The fruit is sour, and of a red or purple color. Quite 

 common. 



The Swamp Rose (Rosa Carolina, L.). This is the common 

 wild rose of our swampy lands. It is often, in wet places, a very 

 tall plant, rising sometimes to the height of seven or eight feet. 

 The deeply pink flowers grow in corymbs, and the fruit, scarlet 

 and bristly, is very brilliant in the fall. The leaflets are dull 

 above and pale beneath. 



The Dwarf Wild Rose (Rosa lueida, Ehrhart) is common, but 

 on higher grounds, or the border of meadows, growing usually 

 about two feet in height. The leaves are shining above and 

 sharply serrate. 



The "Sweet Brier" of song and story (Rosa rubi</inosa,~L.). 

 This beautiful rose, its branches thickly set with hooked bristles 

 and thorns, grows all through Hingham, mostly in neglected pas- 

 tures or quiet woods. Its flowers, smaller and paler than those 

 of the Carolina, and the sweetness of its foliage, which fills the 

 air about it with fragrance, are its distinguishing characteristics. 



The Choke Berry (Pijrus arbutifolia, L.), which grows almost 

 everywhere in the swamps and low lands, is a beautiful shrub. 

 The bright, shining, finely serrate leaves, the white and pink fra- 

 grant flowers, and the clusters of dark crimson fruit (tasting very 

 much more astringent than the Choke Cherry) mark this plant at 

 all seasons. 



The White or Scarlet-fruited Thorn (Crataegus cocci nea, L.). 

 This handsome shrub or small tree grows in the fields and woods 

 bordering Lincoln Street, especially north of Thaxter Street, at 

 Stoddard's Neck, at Peck's Pasture, and elsewhere. It is con- 

 spicuous for its bright, shining leaves, rusty-spotted from a fungus 

 which attacks them early in the season, its fragrant white flowers, 

 brilliant, scarlet, pear-shaped fruit, a little larger than a cranberry, 

 and its sharp, rigid thorns. 



The Shad Bush (Amelancliier Canadensis, Torrcy & Gray), in 

 its two varieties, the small tree and the low shrub, grows in all 

 our woods and along walls and fences. Its showy white, fragrant 

 flowers, appearing just as the leaves are starting, in May, cover 

 the branches so densely as to make it appear at a distance as if 

 loaded with snow. A propensity of the tall variety is to grow 

 close to larger trees, supported by them. It rarely appears 

 standing alone and perfectly erect. 



