TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 285 



closely resemble those of Qucrcus JPrinus. But the difference in 

 the quality and colouring of the bark of the two trees would 

 prevent their being mistaken for one another. 



The wood of Quercus acuminata is used in cooperage. 



BLACK-HAW. STAG-BUSH. {Plate CLVI) 

 Vibiirnum prunifblium. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Honeysuckle. Low % branching. \$-iofeet. Conn, and N. Y. to Fla. May. 



and Texas. Fruit : Sept. 



Wood: reddish brown; hard. Leaves : simple; opposite; with short, slightly 

 or rarely margined petioles with straight edges; broadly oval, or obovate; 

 pointed or blunt at the apex and base; very variable; finely serrate; the teeth 

 sharp; glabrous; lustrous. Flowers: white; small; perfect; growing in com- 

 pound, sessile cymes at the ends of the branches. Fruit : dark blue ; oval ; 

 glaucous ; edible; sweet. 



Just before the earth begins to grow green and tiny leaves 

 venture to show themselves and to shiver, there is about it 

 something very clean and russet looking. Everywhere small 

 harbingers of spring are peeping out, and they seem to enjoy hav- 

 ing things pretty much their own way. Later in the season we 

 owe an abundance of bloom to the Viburnums. Throughout 

 the north the black-haw is most frequently found as a low, 

 branching shrub of about six, eight or twelve feet high. Its 

 leaves are smaller than those of Viburnum lentago, page 82, and 

 the differences in the margins of the petioles serve as a means 

 of their identification. Its cymes of flowers stand out well from 

 the leaves. Besides these particular features the shrub is one 

 that grows in dry soil. 



V. acerifblium, maple-leaved arrow-wood, or dockmaxie, is a 

 shrub of about six feet high. Its bloom broad cymes of small 

 white flowers which grows on long peduncles, is very familiar 

 to us in the early days of spring - , and later its bright crimson 

 drupes, turning eventually to black, are very noticeable. The 

 leaves might be mistaken, and frequently are, for those of a 

 young maple tree. In dry or rocky woods, or abundantly along 

 shady roadsides, the plant is found. 



