

WHITE 



petals. Stamens. Numerous, short. Pistils. With five styles. Fruit. 

 Round, red, berry-like, sweet and edible, ripening in June. 



Down in the boggy meadow in early March we can almost 

 fancy that from beneath the solemn purple cowls of the skunk- 

 cabbage brotherhood comes the joyful chorus 



For lo, the winter is past ! 



but we chilly mortals still find the wind so frosty and the woods 

 so unpromising that we return shivering to the fireside and refuse 

 to take up the glad strain till the feathery clusters of the shad-bush 

 droop from the pasture thicket. Then only are we ready to 

 admit that 



The flowers appear upon the earth, 

 The time of the singing of birds is come. 



Even then, search the woods as we may, we shall hardly find 

 thus early in April another shrub in blossom, unless it be the 

 spice-bush, whose tiny honey-yellow flowers escape all but the 

 careful observer. The shad-bush has been thus named because of 

 its flowering at the season when shad "run ; " June-berry, because 

 the shrub's crimson fruit surprises us by gleaming from the copses 

 at the very beginning of summer ; service-berry, because of the 

 use made by the Indians of this fruit, which they gathered in 

 great quantities, and, after much crushing and pounding, utilized 

 in a sort of cake. 



WOOD ANEMONE. WIND-FLOWER. 



Anemone nemorosa. Crowfoot Family. 



Stem. Slender. Leaves. Divided into delicate leaflets. Flower. 

 Solitary, white, pink, or purplish. Calyx. Of from four to seven petal-like 

 sepals. Corolla. None. Stamens and Pistils. Numerous. 



Within the woods, 



Whose young and half transparent leaves scarce cast 

 A shade, gay circles of anemones 

 Danced on their stalks ; 



writes Bryant, bringing vividly before us the feathery foliage of 

 the spring woods, and the tremulous beauty of the slender- 

 stemmed anemones. Whittier, too, tells how these 



wind flowers sway 

 Against the throbbing heart of May. 



,4 



