VINES AND SHR1 



the sweet fragrance emitted by its delicate ra< 

 in early summer. 



The lightly waving, fine leaflets of the thick foliage, with 

 the drooping racemes of white flowers, ra lisite 



forest picture. 



A curious provision for the protection of tender Inula is 

 furnished by trees and shrubs of this genus. The base of the 

 present leaf-stalk is hollow, like a thimble, and i1 I 

 hud. One has «»nly to pluck a locust leaf to discover • 

 season's hud forming under it and growing in as • 

 nest as could, be devised. It is a common opinion among 



farmers that lightning will strike a locust tree quicker than 

 any other, and that, therefore, one planted near a h 

 may serve as a lightning-conductor. The numerous charred 

 trunks of locust trees observed in a walk in the forest would 



seem to hear out this idea. 



Purple Azalea. Pinxter Flower. Swamp Pink 

 Rhododendron nudiflbrum. — Family, Heath. Has bright pink 

 flowers appearing very early in April, before the leaves of the 



shrub are fairly out. 



This is similar to the white azalea, without the sticky 

 calyx-tube, and less fragrant than R. viscosum (p. 411.) Both 

 fill our swampy woods with beautiful bloom in their season. 

 Upon each appear" May-apples," an edible, pulpy ex 

 cence, formerly supposed to be the work of insects, now 

 admitted to be a legitimate growth, a modified hud. Says 

 Mr. Gibson, in his inimitable way: 



"The May-apple, which hangs among the clusters n{ the 

 wild, fragrant, pink swamp azaleas, has no mission in the 

 world except to melt in the mouth of the eager, thirsty small 

 boy. lie knows little and cares less what it really is. He 

 only knows that it beckons him as he passes through ' 



May w Is. and its cool, translucent, pale-green pulp is like 



balm to his thirsty lips. How it makes the corners of my 

 jaws ache with thirsty yearning as I think of it* and 

 a pink whifT of the swamp May-blooms its memory brings!" — 

 Sharp Eyes. 



Rhodora 



R. canadinse. — Flowers appear earlier than tin- leaves Corolla. 

 of a purplish pink or nwc color. Tube, short . hardly any. the 

 2-lipped. May and June. 



441 



