IN SILENT WOODS IOI 



which fill the wood -edges and openings in May 

 and early June with fine sprays of small, whitish, 

 bell - shaped blossoms that suggest the old - world 

 Heaths from which the tribe took its name. The 

 blossoms are mainly inconspicuous, yet they count 

 for much in masses and the berries are all edible, 

 either for man or bird. The leaves, of a tender 

 green at first, progress through many shades, until 

 in Autumn they change to a rich leather-red, of 

 the same color worn by the Pepperidge, and so 

 carry the fire into the underbrush of the woods, 

 where it burns as brightly as the Sumac flame on 

 the bare hillsides. 



In late May and early June white still remains 

 the flower color of the wood, of shrubs and of 

 smaller trees. The Hobble Bush opens its cymes 

 of florets, shaped much like a flattened garden 

 Snowball, and soon the Maple -leaved Arrow- wood 

 keeps it company, though the latter, like many of 

 the Whortle- and Blueberries, is more noticeable in 

 Autumn from the peculiar shade of pink worn by 

 its Maple -like leaves. Meanwhile, close to the 

 ground the Dwarf Cornel or Bunch -berry is imi- 

 tating the blossom of its cousin, the Flowering 

 Dogwood, and holding its greenish enveloped 

 flower -clusters above a whorl of leaves. This plant 



