STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



principle is one of the characteristics of the family, and 

 probably our native plants might prove as valuable tonics 

 as the foreign root were they tested. The Five-flowered 

 Gentian is very unlike the bright and more showy blossomed 

 species described above. The flowers, in fives, are narrow 

 bells of a delicate pale lilac tint, clustered in the axils ol 

 the narrow light-green leaves; the plant is found sometimes 

 on dry, grassy banks, and in the angles of fences by the road- 

 side. 



I have a specimen closely resembling the above species, 

 sent from Iowa, the chief difference being that the tips of the 

 slender flower-tubes are of a deep dark blue our Canadian 

 flower being only slightly tinted with very pale lilac. I 

 have never found any of the Gentians growing in the forest, 

 though several species seem to flourish in partial shade in 

 open thickets. 



With the Gentians I have brought to a close the floral 

 season of the Canadian year. A few stragglers may yet be 

 found amongst late Asters and Golden-rods, in sheltered 

 glens and lonely hollows, but the glory of the year has 

 departed gone with the last deep blue bell of the loveliest 

 of her race, the Calathian Violet, the solitary flower of the 

 Indian Summer. All that now remains for us is the bright 

 frosted foliage of the dwarf oaks and the scarlet-tinged 

 leaves of the low huckleberry bushes; the brilliant berries 

 of the leafless Winterberry, Ilex verticillata (Gray), and the 

 clustered garlands of the Climbing Bitter-Sweet, Celastrus 

 scandens, which hang among the branches of the silver- 

 barked birch and other forest trees, or near the margin of 

 lake or stream; and the crimson fruit of the frost-touched 

 High-bush Cranberry, Viburnum Opiilus while on dry, 

 stony hills and rugged rocks the Bearberry covers with its 

 creeping branches of dark green shining leaves and gay 



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