HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY 



the weight of the berries is too great for the stem to 

 hold erect it is overburdened and its beauty is im- 

 paired. 



INDIAN CURRANT. CORAL-BERRY 



SympJioricdrpos sympJioricdrpos . SympJioricdrpos vulgar is. 



A shrub two to five feet high, branches erect or slightly curved, 

 twigs purplish brown, usually pubescent. Found in rocky places 

 and on river banks, from the banks of the Delaware in New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania, south to Georgia and Texas, and west 

 to Dakota. Cultivated. 



Leaves. Opposite, simple, short-petioled, one to one and one- 

 half inches long, oval or ovate, rounded at base, rounded or acute 

 at apex, margin entire or undulate, smooth above, softly downy 

 beneath. They come out of the bud involute, dull pale green ; 

 when full grown are dull dark green above, paler below. In 

 autumn they remain unchanged until destroyed by the heavy 

 frosts. 



Flowers. August. Perfect, small, greenish pink-tipped bells; 

 borne in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves; filled with 

 nectar. 



Calyx. Tube adnate to the ovary, five-toothed ; teeth short, 

 persistent. 



Corolla. Bell-shaped, greenish pink, downy within, five- 

 lobed. 



Stamens. Four or five, inserted on corolla-tube, and alternate 

 with its lobes. 



Pistil. -Ovary inferior, four-celled, only two of the cells with 

 a fertile ovule, style bearded. 



Fruit. Berry, purplish red, ovoid-globose, three sixteenths of 

 an inch in diameter, four-celled, two-seeded, crowned by the 

 remnants of the calyx, insipid, persistent after the leaves have 

 fallen. 



The abundance of fruit on the Indian Currant is lit- 

 tle short of marvellous. The slender stems are fruit 

 bearing for five or ten inches from the tip; the clusters 



290 



