"THE LEAFY MONTH OF JUNE" 



In the woods of June no family is more con- 

 sciously or conspicuously represented than the Heaths 

 heaths. The small, bell-like waxen blossoms, 

 white, pink, or actually red, of the various blue- 

 berries and huckleberries appear early in the 

 month. In the mountains and along the New 

 England coast we find in flower at this time a 

 singularly attractive little plant, the mountain- 

 cranberry. Its blossom resembles those of the 

 blueberry group more closely than it does the 

 flowers of the other cranberries, being bell-shaped 

 and wax-like. It is a creeping plant and its rose- 

 colored blossoms, growing in close clusters, nestle 

 among the dark, shining evergreen leaves which 

 carpet the rocky ledges near the sea or cover dain- 

 tily the stones which rise up in the wood-path. 

 It seems to me a much more perfect and pictu- 

 resque plant than its relative, the trailing arbutus, 

 but its flowers lack the rare fragrance of the latter. 



The other cranberries, the small and the large, 

 blossom later in the month, lasting sometimes Cranber- 

 well into July. Their pale-pink flowers nod from rtes 

 erect, thread-like stems among the slender grasses 

 and delicate, moisture-loving plants of the peat 

 bogs. The reflexed petals and protruding conni- 

 vent stamens of these blossoms suggest somewhat 

 the shooting-star of our western woods as well as 

 its larger kinsman, the European cyclamen. The 



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