THE STRAWBERRY-SHRUB FAAHLV. ,91 



ginning to ripen ; although naturally the outlines of its foliage forbade the 

 pursuance of the illusion. When gathered and opened, the seeds were 

 found to be quite numerous, while within each one the cotyledons, snugly 

 curled, were clearly to be seen. This fruit it is said, is very poisonous to 

 sheep. 



yy, Florida, hairy strawberry-shrub, a native of the south, is the species so 

 generally planted and which when well grown assumes rounded and beau- 

 tiful proportions. Its branches and petioles are covered with pubescence 

 while underneath the leaves also are softly downy. The greatest difference 

 between the two shrubs, however, in the way of their affording pleasure, is 

 that the flowers of this one, especially when they are crushed, emit a most 

 delightful fragrance, suggestive of the spicy scent of wild woodsy straw- 

 berries. 



THE LAUREL FAMILY. 



Laurlicea:. 



Mostly aromatic trees or shrubs 7vitJi alternate, siniple, minutely dotted 

 leaves without stipules and s??iall yellow or greenish usually fragrant 

 flowers produced in clusters. Calyx segments imbricated in tiuo series. 

 Corolla : none. Fruit : a berry or d?icpe. 



SPICE=BUSH. BENJAfllN BUSH. FEVER BUSH. 

 WILD ALLSPICE. 



Benzoin Benzoin. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Laurel. Leutoji-yelloiv. Fragrant. Tennessee and North Carolina Marc/i, A />rii. 



nortkivard and ivestward. 



Flowers : dioecious, growing thickly along the branches and appearing liefore the 

 leaves ; the clusters having at their bases an invokicre of four deciduous scales. 

 Calyx : with six early falling, rounded segments. vStaniinate flowers with their 

 stamens arranged in series of three ; pistillate ones with a rounded ovary and 

 rudiments of fifteen to eighteen stamens. Drupes: bright red, oblong, fragrant 

 when opened. Leaves : aUernate, with slender, ])ubescent petioles ; oval, or el- 

 liptical, pointed at both ends, paler below than above ; deciduous. A spreading 

 shrub three to twenty feet high with slender twigs, the bark of which is greyish and 

 smooth. 



Like a beam of sunshine radiating the bare tangled branches of winter do 

 innumerable little lemon-yellow blossoms of the spice bush spread the moist 

 woods in earliest spring and wave a proclarnation of its incoming. Much 



