STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIICTY. 85 



even more dangerous if eaten. When a man moves with his 

 family upon a newly purchased farm and, as recently occurred in 

 Winslow, within a few days loses a three-year-old son by his 

 eating- a small piece of the root of the water hemlock (cicuta 

 maculata), ploughed up in the field near the house, it is a sad 

 beginning- of life in the new home. There are so many poisonous 

 roots, berries and flowers that the simple rule never to eat what 

 you are not sure is harmless should always be observed. 



Another and a most interesting subject of study may be found 

 in the various changes which take place in plant life with the 

 succession of the seasons. It is a source of constant pleasure 

 and of ever fresh experiences to watch the inflowing tide of plant 

 life as it rises higher and higher from earliest spring till late 

 summer, and then as it ebbs again until it seems to come to a 

 dead pause in mid-winter. There is no season of the year when 

 the botanist may not find ample material for profitable investi- 

 gation. In the fall he may study the later flowers of the year, 

 golden rods, asters, gentians, the witch hazel blossoms clinging 

 yellow upon the stems after the leaves have fallen, many belated 

 blossoms of earlier blooming species, and often flowers which are 

 really early comers of the following spring, aldertags, pussy- 

 willows, violets, strawberry blossoms and may flowers at least 

 in bud. It is the time most forms of fruit, the fading of the 

 leaves and other changes of the season are in their glory. It is 

 exceedingly interesting to mark the preparations which Nature 

 makes alike for the winter's rest and for the more vigorous life 

 of spring. 



In winter one may study the evergreen trees, the very shape 

 of which is protective against the breaking of their branches by 

 the snow ; the general habit and branch arrangements of dicidu- 

 ous trees, the record of earlier growth in the scars upon their 

 branches, and the promise of future growth in the snugly-packed 

 buds upon their twigs ; the many ways in which latent life is 

 packed away in roots or in bulb, under ground, or in the air in 

 buds variously covered with scales, or wool, or varnish. There 

 is no need to mention subjects for spring and summer. They 

 thrust themselves on the attention of every one who has eyes to 

 see, and richly repay his observation and thought. 



