OUR COUNT R Y II O M E 



strong young rhododendrons as an experiment. One winter they 

 have lived through; now we await the coming of Spring with its 

 alternate freezing and thawing and freezing again. A member 

 of the family driving in the Adirondacks saw a dainty plant resem- 

 bling the paint brush, and promptly contributed it to our collec- 

 tion. We eagerly look forward to its blossom the coming summer 

 to get more definite information in regard to it. 



After we had noted each flower in its season and learned its 

 two names, at least, we imagined perhaps as far as botany was 

 concerned we had exhausted our field. Not at all. The late 

 summer and autumn developed another form of beauty, and we 

 had the world of wonderful seed pods to study.' What were those 

 tiny iridescent shot-like berries in bunches on the frail grass-like 

 stalk only about eight inches high ? No leaves were near, of 

 course no flower, it was late October. One learns patience in 

 studying Nature. A careful note was made, and the next Spring 

 a tiny bunch of greenish white flowers appeared on the grassy 

 stalk, which was soon labelled the wild leek. In November tall 

 spikes of curiously grooved stems set with whorls of bright orange 

 berries clinging close to their sides attracted us throughout the 

 woods. The strange stems helped us, and we learned it was tlie 

 horse gentian. It was on the Fourth of July, I remember, we 

 found one year some dark blue, round, smooth berries on a leaf- 

 less stalk, about two feet high, the berries were loosely clustered, 

 of varying sizes and we kept meeting them in our ramblings. It 



was not until the next year that we discovered for ourselves 



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