On " The Point " — Second Excursion 



forms of inflorescence that come so thick and fast. But 

 in early fall the eye reverts to it again ; its whiteness 

 has turned to abundant blue-black berry-clusters, and 

 the deep reddish -brown or bronze tint of foliage is 

 exclusively its own. 



Nettle-tree. — An evident favorite of those who 

 stocked the Park (for it is profusely scattered throughout 

 the grounds) is the nettle-tree, also called hackberry 

 and sugarberry. East of Ohio it is rarely found except 

 in cultivation, as its habitat is chiefly the Middle and 

 Western States. Its leaf is small, rather triangular, and 

 decidedly lop-sided, as the linden is to some extent. It 

 is said to resemble the elm-leaf closely, but the differ- 

 ence, to a fairly good eye, is greater than the resemblance. 

 Why it is made so much of in the Park I cannot discover, 

 unless they secured a ''job lot" at a bargain. I have 

 tried hard to get interested in this species, with but poor 

 success. It is one of the easiest to recognize in winter, 

 as its branches are often filled with large clusters of 

 coarse dead fibre, the withered stems of the fascicled 

 staminate flowers; and its smooth, beech-like bark is 

 covered toward the base with blistered excrescences not 

 found in any other tree. It has no blossoms worth men- 

 tioning, its dark berry-like fruit is not so abundant as 

 to be attractive, and the foliage withers without a par- 

 ticle of color in fall. This is the faintest praise with 

 which I can bless this species. 



Wild Black Cherry. — But a good, honest ornament 

 of our woods, and which bears itself most creditably in 



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