Old Flower Favorites 169 



" I remember, I remember, 

 The house where I was born," 



Ella Partridge had a tall Laburnum tree at her front 

 door ; it peeped in the second-storv windows. It was 

 so cherished, that I doubt whether its blooms were 

 ever gathered. She told us with conscious pride 

 and rectitude that it was a " yellow Wistaria tree 

 which came from China " ; I saw no reason to doubt 

 her words, and as I never chanced to speak to my 

 parents about it, I ever thought of it as a yellow 

 Wistaria tree until I went out into the world and 

 found it was a Scotch Laburnum. 



Few garden owners plant now the Snowberry, 

 Symphoricarpus racemosus, once seen in every front 

 yard, and even used for hedges. It wasn't a very 

 satisfactory shrub in its habit; the oval leaves were 

 not a cheerful green, and were usually pallid with 

 mildew. The flowers were insignificant, but the 

 clusters of berries were as pure as pearls. In countrv 

 homes, before the days of cheap winter flowers and 

 omnipresent greenhouses, these snowy clusters were 

 cherished to gather in winter to place on coffins and 

 in hands as white and cold as the berries. Its special 

 offence in our garden was partly on account of this 

 funereal association, but chiefly because we were never 

 permitted to gather its berries to string into necklaces. 

 They were rigidly preserved on the stem as a garden 

 decoration in winter ; though they were too closely 

 akin in color to the encircling snowdrifts to be of 

 any value. 



In country homes in olden times were found sev- 



