102 IN SILENT WOODS 



is also better known by the bright red knot of 

 berries that follow than by the bloom itself. 



Many wood -plants that blossom in the early 

 season must be recognized by leaf or fruit, for 

 people in general do not tramp the woods before 

 late June, when the flowery carpet is turning to 

 greens and other leaf-tones. So it is with the 

 fragile feathers of White Baneberry ; its blooms 

 have faded by June, but the compound leaves 

 and red -stemmed clusters of white berries are 

 conspicuous until frost and serve as punctuation 

 points to the eye in glancing over the vague 

 masses of Ferns and Summer leafage. Wild Sarsa- 

 parilla also parts with its feathery white flower - 

 balls in June, and its bristling seed -pods, seeming 

 at first glance like those of Parsley, Caraway and 

 Dill, tell its name throughout the Summer woods. 

 Medeola, more widely known as Indian Cucumber 

 Root, at the fertile season when May blends with 

 June, raises a sort of two -story stalk, sometimes 

 two feet or more in height, with a whorl of Lily- 

 veined leaves in the middle, and another at the 

 summit supporting an umbrella of greenish white 

 flowers. So transient are they in their blooming 

 that the outer florets often wither before the cen- 

 tral ones unfold, leaving the cluster of shining ber- 



