JUNE DAYS IN FIELD AND FOREST 



395 



lovely red and purplish berries the June .berries (Fig. i). 

 As these have an agreeable and rather sweetish taste, 

 many people like to eat them, though they are rarely ex- 

 posed for sale in the fruit markets. Some call them 

 Service berries. While it is usually found growing in 

 dry, open woodlands, it is also to be found along the 

 banks of sluggish streams or on the borders of marshes. 

 Alice Louns- 

 berry states 

 that this shrub 

 may grow to 

 become a t r e e 

 sixty feet high ; 

 but we must 

 believe that it 

 rarely reaches 

 a height to ex- 

 ceed thirty feet. 

 As a matter of 

 fact, in barren 

 soil, more or 

 less rocky, one 

 may find June 

 berries in full 

 fruit that have 

 hardly attained 

 the height of 

 six or seven 

 feet. Its leaves 

 are well shown 

 in Figure I, 

 where, too, a 

 fine bunch of 

 its fruit is dis- 

 played. 



One may 

 well ask why 

 this famous 

 shrub has re- 

 ceived names 

 so utterly dif- 

 ferent in their 

 meaning a 

 question which 

 Mrs. Dana has 

 inswered in the 

 following 

 words : "The 

 shadbush has 

 been thus 

 named because 

 of its flowering 

 at the season when the 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 quantities, and, after much crush- 

 ing and pounding, made into a sort of cake." A likely 

 place to find a June-berry shrub in full fruit is along the 



A TYPICAL FROG POND 



Fig. 3 This beautiful pond is in Southern Maryland, a mile or so below Great Falls. In it 

 live many interesting aquatic forms, including two or three species of frogs. Patches of 

 elegant yellow pond lilies may be seen upon its surface; while where the margins are sedgy 

 lurk pretty specimens of the little ribbon snake and other creatures. 



margin of some such pond as we see in Figure 3 ; but 

 should we not meet with one, there are many other 'in- 

 teresting things that we will surely find. 



At a little distance we see, growing amidst the sedge 

 that borders the banks in some places, what appears to be 

 a patch of beautiful purplish flowers ; some are growing 

 out in the water, away from other plants. As we come 



aearer, they are 

 readily recog- 

 nized as the 

 Blue Flag in 

 full bloom, or, 

 as they are 

 called, Blue 

 Iris, the plant 

 f.ere figured be- 

 ing the Slender 

 Blue Flag. In 

 our flora it has 

 several close 

 relatives in its 

 own genus, 

 such as the 

 Larger Blue 

 Flag; the 

 Dwarf Iris ; the 

 Yellow Iris, 

 and others, the 

 entire group 

 being related to 

 the Iris family, 

 t h e Iridacece. 

 All have sword 

 shaped leaves 

 and tough, tu- 

 berous root- 

 stocks, and in 

 all the flowers 

 are wonder- 

 fully handsome 

 and very 

 showy. Many 

 species have 

 now been cul- 

 tivated and 

 grow in our 

 gardens. Iris 

 is Greek for 

 t h e rainbow ; 

 the goddess of 

 the same name 

 was the attend- 

 ant of Juno, and the history of the flowers of this famous 

 plant is very interesting. It was Ruskin who said that 

 "the fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of chivalry, has a 

 sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart"; and, as a 

 flower, it runs into the history of France, of Napoleon, 

 of the Crusader, of Louis the Seventh and into no end 

 of works in literature and the fine arts. 



