98 IN SILENT WOODS 



vive the destruction of their haunts if they them- 

 selves are left untouched. The surroundings may 

 alter, the sheltering trees disappear, but so long as a 

 footing remains, or a drop of moisture to refresh 

 them, the wood things retain a native dignity. 



To consider every Flower and Fern that may be 

 found in shady ways, on wood edges, on half -cleared 

 lands or following the water courses as they wind 

 through forests, would be to catalogue more than half 

 the native flowers that bloom from Arbutus until 

 Witch Hazel time; yet the greater number of the 

 landscape flowers of the New England woods may 

 be gathered from four tribes: the Lily family, the 

 Dogwood, Viburnum and the Heath, though in the 

 botanic world, for the reason of the great variety of 

 forms it held, the Heath Family has lately been 

 divided into separate households. 



When Time o' Year brushed the dead leaves 

 from the pink Arbutus buds he opened the first page 

 of this wonderful Heath Family register, which never 

 closes the whole of the round year, for the pungent 

 fruits of the Checkerberry or Wintergreen outlast 

 the winter and often contrast their lusty redness with 

 the snow of white Hepaticas. Though these fami- 

 lies enter the woods almost in company, the Lily and 

 Dogwood leading in landscape beauty, the Heath, 



