STUDIES OP PLANT LIFE 



exceeding twelve or fifteen feet in height ; it is very sym- 

 metrical in its growth, forming a fine compact pyramid, 

 covered early in the month of May with an abundance of 

 crowded racemes of elegant white flowers, sometimes tinged 

 with pink; the blossoms come somewhat before the tender 

 silken leaf-buds unfold. The foliage is delicately and 

 sharply cut at the margins of the thin ovate oblong leaves, 

 which are soft, silky and folded together. The fruit of this 

 pretty June-berry is small ; when ripe it is of a pink or rose 

 color, sweet and juicy, but somewhat insipid ; not so nice as 

 another form which is known in some places by the name of 

 " Sheepberry."* This forms a handsome bush about ten feet 

 high, the flower and fruit larger than the former, the berries 

 dark red, almost purple when ripe in July, with a pleasant 

 nutty flavor. Open thickets on the sides of ravines on the 

 Kice Lake plains were favorite localities for the Sheepberry. 

 Another dwarf June-berry, not more than five or six feet 

 high or less, grows in the sandy flats on these same plains. 

 This is a pretty, low shrub with greenish-white racemes of 

 flowers and oval leaves; fruit dark purplish-red and sweet, 

 but the berries are small, not larger than currants; the 

 bark of the branchlets of this little June-berry is dark red, 

 and the leaves are very downy underneath ; the fruit is ripe 

 in July and August, about the same time as the Huckle- 

 .berries. 



DWARF CHERRY SAND CHERRY Prunus pumila (L.). 



The Dwarf Cherry, more commonly known as Sand 

 Cherry, is chiefly found on light sandy lands; it is a low 

 bushy shrub, from eighteen inches to two feet in height; 

 the slender branches are inclined to trail upon the ground, 

 sometimes rooting; the centre stem is more upright. This 



* This is a local name ; the name ' ' Sheepberry " properly belongs to Viburnum Lentago. 



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