Where Town and Country Meet 



Altogether the prettiest of the many red 

 berries in my basket were the delicate clus 

 ters of the mountain holly, which I discov 

 ered, just as I was about to leave the moun 

 tain road, in a thicket some rods ahead. 

 The mountain holly is a small shrub with 

 very light gray, almost white, bark. Its ber 

 ries are borne in thick clusters, and are of 

 the most vivid, clear, coral-like color, so 

 bright and smooth that when you hold them 

 up to the eye they seem almost transparent. 



On my way home I added to my collection 

 of red berries the fruit of the black alder, 

 some clusters of red-berried elder, and a 

 pretty little red berry speckled with purple 

 the berry of the false Solomon's seal. Of 

 wintergreen berries, of course, I found a 

 plenty also. Other purple or purplish ber 

 ries gathered were those of the pokeweed 

 and Indian cucumber-root. Only one kind 

 of yellow berry rewarded my search, and 

 that was the ground-cherry, which grows on 

 a thick-branched, spreading plant, almost a 

 shrub in size, and is curiously protected by a 

 kind of loose envelope. 



My ramble took me over a piece of coun 

 try less than four miles square, yet I find 

 160 



