42 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



sweet gale (Myrica Gale), another similar fragrant 

 shrub, which grows from three to five feet high. 

 The blunt extremities of the leaves are toothed, and 

 the flowers, similar to those of the foregoing species, 

 appear in May ; the sterile ones are closely clustered. 

 The little nuts are round and 

 dotted, and are winged by 

 a pair of egg-shaped 

 scales ; they are 

 crowded together 

 two to six in a 

 cluster. Sweet gale 



o 



is distributed from 

 Maine westward 

 along the Great 

 Sweet Fern. Lakes to Minnesota, 



and southward along the mountains to Virginia. 



Sweet fern (Myrica asplenifolia\ which is, of 

 course, not a fern at all but another member of the 

 Sweet Gale family, is common on every pasture and 

 rocky hill throughout the North. It is unnecessary 

 to describe it in detail, so well is it known. The 

 brownish yellow flowers which appear in April or 

 May are of two kinds on the same plant ; the sterile 

 ones are about an inch long, catkinlike, drooping or 

 erect, and crowded toward the tips of the branches ; 

 the fertile ones are oblong, one third of an inch long, 



