White and Greenish 



Preferred Habitat — Woodland borders, pasture thickets, dry soil. 

 Flozvering Season — March — May. 



Distribution — Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, westward over 

 a thousand miles. 



Silvery-white chandeliers, hanging from the edges of the 

 woods, light Flora's path in earliest spring, before the trees and 

 shrubbery about them have begun to put forth foliage, much less 

 flowers. Little plants that hug the earth for protection while rude 

 winds rush through the forest and across the hillsides, are already 

 starring her way with fragile, dainty blossoms; but what other 

 shrub, except the service-berry's twin sister the shad-bush, or per- 

 haps the spice-bush, has the temerity to burst into bloom while 

 March gusts howl through the naked forests ? Little female bees 

 of the Andrena tribe, already at work collecting pollen and nectar 

 for generations yet unborn, buzz their gratitude about the beauti- 

 ful feathery clusters that lean away from the crowded thicket 

 with a wild, irregular grace. Nesting birds have abundant cause 

 for gratitude also, for the attractive, sweet berries, that ripen 

 providentially early; but, of course, the bees which transfer pollen 

 from flower to flower, and the birds which drop the seeds far and 

 wide, are not the receivers of wholly disinterested favors. 



The Shad-bush or Swamp Sugar-pear {A. Botryapium), be- 

 cause it was formerly accounted a mere variety {oblongifolia) of 

 the preceding species, still shares with it its popular names; but 

 swamps, river banks, brook sides, and moist thickets are its habi- 

 tat. Consequently both its inflorescence and pale green, glossy 

 foliage are covered with a sort of whitish cotton, absorbent \yhen 

 young, to prevent the pores from clogging with vapors arising 

 from Its damp retreats. Late in the season, when streams narrow 

 or dry up altogether, and the air becomes drier, as the sun rises 

 higher in the heavens, the foliage is usually quite smooth. It will 

 be noticed that, lovely as the shad-bush is, its smaller flowers have 

 shorter pedicels than the service-berry's ; consequently its feathery 

 sprays, which are flung outward to the sunshine in April and May, 

 lack something of the grace for which its sister stands preeminent. 

 Under cultivation both species assume conventional form, and 

 lose the wild irregularities of growth that charm us in Nature's 

 garden. Indians believed, what is an obvious f^ict, that when this 

 bush whitens the swampy river-banks, shad are swimming up 

 the stream from the sea to spawn. Then, too, the night hawk, 

 returning from its winter visit south, booms forth its curious whir- 

 ring, vibrating, jarring sound as it drops through the air at unseen 

 heights, a dismal, weird noise which the red man thought pro- 

 ceeded from the shad spirits come to warn the schools of fish of 

 their impending fate. 



206 



