68 HISTORY OF COIIASSET. 



now usurped the place of many of nature's evergreens 

 throughout the village. The vines and underbrush have 

 thrived in pastures where the shady pines have been cut, 

 but they have lost their grip in places where men have 

 taken a notion to uproot them. 



The Indians formerly burned the horsebriers and the 

 roses and the bayberry and raspberry and blackberry in 

 order to make for themselves pathways and cornfields, and 

 the hands of white men have been even more ruthless; 

 but these vines and shrubs have adopted the stone walls 

 for their friends, and by their protection they thrive and 

 fill the air with fragrance. These small members of the 

 vegetable kingdom have been the benefactors of men. 

 The berries have fed many an Indian, perhaps many a 

 bear. The bayberries of later date made candles. The 

 swamp milkweed was the hemp for Indian fish lines and 

 fish nets. Many other uses, besides gratifying the sense 

 of beauty, were subserved by these minor strands in the 

 fabric of nature. But all of nature's products are interest- 

 ing for their own sakes. The life fortunes and mishaps of 

 a single tree are sometimes romantic ; much more so are 

 the complex events of a myriad forms of plant life. 

 Through seven thousand years of their struggle for exist- 

 ence they have been weaving the superb garment of ver- 

 dure that adorns the hills of this New England sea town. 



