A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



thing. I had occasion to make a path through 

 a thick growth of small pines. The dead limbs 

 extended on each tree from the ground to 

 a height of ten feet. I broke off the limbs 

 so I could pass under them without trouble. 

 After the path was completed, it turned cold 

 for two days. When I undertook to pass 

 that way during the cold spell, the dead limbs 

 were so much depressed that I was obliged to 

 break the path anew. 



I experimented on dead limbs at different 

 times, and found it was a fact that lifeless 

 pine-limbs will fall in cold and rise in warm 

 weather. I am unable to give a reason for 

 this movement. 



On my way to the city, the first wild flower 

 to greet me in the spring is the snowy white 

 bloom of the shadbush, or June-berry, as it is 

 called here. It grows in great masses all along 

 the old highway. Bond's Hill is pretty well 

 covered with a variety unknown to any botany. 

 I have referred this variety of theAmelan- 

 chier to some of our professors in botany. I 

 suppose in time it will find its place in the 

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