B 



Something better than the everlasting rocks 

 were the transient flowers. To-day they were 

 abundant. Clinging to the gray stone fence was 

 the bittersweet, or better-known deadly night- 

 shade. I doubt if the latter name is really merited, 

 for the occasional eating of two or three of the ber- 

 ries has led to no harm, and so fine a plant should 

 not be shunned as if pestilential, as is often the 

 case. All too few are the plants that at the same 

 time give us both fruit and blossom. This did so. 

 The glossy red berries were peculiarly conspicu- 

 ous, scattered over the pale gray lichens, and the 

 purple and yellow bloom brightened and warmed 

 many a jutting corner of the loose piled rocks. 

 Responsive, too, to every passing breeze, the 

 beauty of both fruit and flower was heightened 

 when set trembling. That motion which has so 

 much to do with the beauty of many plants seems 

 to have been largely overlooked. A stiff, staid 

 aspen would be an ugly tree. That splendid 

 shrub, the nemopanthes, might possibly be passed 

 by, even if in full fruit; but never, if there is a gentle 

 breeze. Then every crimson berry on its slender 

 stem sways to and fro, and your steps are staid to 

 watch this carnival of color. And what more 

 beautiful than those purple globes of frost- spangled 

 eragrostis, the grass that in winter is rolled and 

 tossed, the sport of every wind, until lodged 

 fixedly at last, rods from its summer home. 



Deadly or not, there were countless insects on 

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