268 Walks in New England 



manifest themselves with small excuse for error, 

 but in our woods none is in full development, 

 the primeval forest is gone, and a tree that is more 

 than 30 years old is rare. So it comes to pass 

 that an old wood-ranger may pronounce a flower 

 ing dogwood a sassafras, and utter other such 

 humiliating dicta. How many can tell a blueberry 

 from a viburnum ? How many can declare at the 

 edge of the swamp that the little laurel is there 

 instead of the cassandra ? The heaths are very 

 closely related and resemblant, and tis no wonder, 

 so superficial is our observation. 



It is interesting also to study the seed stalks as 

 they lift over the snow on the fields and in the 

 wooded paths. The golden-rods are easiest rec 

 ognized, but sometimes they get mixed with the 

 asters. These profusely seeded &quot; weeds &quot; of the 

 compositae are of great interest, because they 

 furnish a great part of the food of the birds that 

 frequent the winter fields and thickets. It would 

 be a very mistaken project to exterminate the 

 golden-rods and asters, the mulleins and thistles ; 

 for the birds are worth more to the farmer and the 

 earth than all the roods of cleared land on which 

 not a weed should be seen. The American holly, 

 commonly called the black alder, is not only one 

 of the most beautiful of our native shrubs, but its 

 brilliant red berries feed the juncos and the chicka- 



