EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 



relief against the shaded roadside borders of late 

 spring. The mountain maple rarely grows over 

 fifteen feet high. 



Another shrub with three leaflets like the hop 

 tree is the bladder nut (Staptiy- 

 lea trifolia). This is com- 

 monly seen on the roadside, 

 especially among the thickets 

 which border the bog. Its pret- 

 ty white flowers which terminate 

 the slender branchlets in 

 drooping clusters appear 

 in May. The leaflets 

 (sometimes there are 

 five) are toothed, and the 

 main stems of the com- 

 pound leaves grow oppo- 

 site to each other. The blad- 

 der nut is a handsome 

 shrub, from six to ten 

 feet high, with green- 

 striped branches, and 

 (in late summer) extraordinary inflated 

 seed pods like my sketch, which are 

 three-sided and three-celled, each cell 

 containing about three smooth hard seeds. The pod, 

 if crushed, smells like a pea pod. 



Mountain Maple. 



Bladder Nut. 



