White and Greenish 



tainers as they journey across the cyme. So widely do the anthers 

 diverge, that pollen must often drop on the stigma of a neighbor- 

 ing floret, and quite as often a flower is likely to be self-fertilized 

 through the curvature of the filaments. 



The Withe-rod or Appalachian Tea (K. cassinoides)—l^. 

 ntidnm of Gray — is found in swamps and wet ground from North 

 Carolina and Minnesota northward, flowering in May or June. 

 Its dense clusters of perfect, small white flowers, on a rather short 

 peduncle, are followed by oval "berries" that, although pink at 

 first, soon turn a dark blue, with a bloom like the huckleberry's. 

 The opposite, oval to oblong, rather thick, smooth leaves and 

 the somewhat scurfy twigs help the novice to name this common 

 shrub, whose tough, pliable branches make e.xcellent binders for 

 farmer's bundles, but whose leaves cannot be recommended as a 

 substitute for tea. 



Beautiful enough for any gentleman's lawn is the Sweet 

 Viburnum, Nanny-berry, Sheep-berry, or Nanny-bush, as it is 

 variously called (K Lcnlago). Indeed, its name appears in many 

 nurserymen's catalogues. From Georgia, Indiana, and Missouri 

 far northward it grows in rich, moist soil, sometimes attaining 

 the height of a tree, more frequently that of a good-sized shrub. 

 A profusion of dense white, broad flower clusters, seated among 

 the rich green terminal leaves in May, indicate a feast for migrat- 

 ing birds and hungry beasts, including the omnivorous small boy 

 in October, when the bluish-black, bToom-covered, sweet, edible 

 '' berries " ripen. A peculiarity of the ovate, long-tapering, and 

 finely saw-edged leaves is that' their long petioles often broaden 

 out and become wavy margined. 



Another Viburnum, with smooth, bluish-black, sweet, and 

 edible fruit, that ripens a month earlier than the nanny-berry's, 

 is the similar Black Haw, Stag-bush, or Sloe (K. pninifolium). 

 As its Latin name indicates, the leaves suggest those of a plum 

 tree, it is a very early bloomer, the fiat-topped white clusters 

 appearing in April, and lasting through June, in various parts of 

 its range from the Gulf States to southern New England and 

 Michigan. Unlike the hobble-bush and the withe-rod, both the 

 nanny-berry and the black haw have conspicuous winter buds, 

 the latter bush often clothing its tender undeveloped foliage with 

 warm-looking reddish down, although few of its naked kin have 

 so southerly a range. 



259 



