THE PROGRESS OF THE SEASONS. 311 



land nearly every shrub and plant bears sweet-smelling 

 flowers. The blueberry, huckleberry, and other Vaccinise 

 now show their pretty heath-like blossoms in promise of 

 the abundant harvest of delicious fruit which is so ac- 

 ceptable to birds, bears, and bipeds throughout the fall ; 

 the rich carpet of mosses in the fir-woods is adorned 

 with a great variety of flowers, the most frequent being 

 the common pigeon-bei-ry (Cornus Canadensis), whose 

 bright scarlet clusters of berries look so pretty in the fall 

 in contrast with the green moss ; and large tracts of 

 country are tinted by the rich lilac flower-masses of the 

 wild azalea (Rhodora Canadensis), which blossoms even 

 before its leaves have sprouted from their buds. Many 

 of thf^ young leaves of the poplars, willows, and others 

 are coated with a canescent down, and, as they tremble 

 in the sunlight, with waving masses of white blossoms, 

 give {I sparkling and silvery appearance to the country, 

 which is very beautiful and attractive. 



This delightful season is, however, of short duration — 

 imperceptibly losing itself in the increasing heat and 

 development of summer. A few days change the aspect 

 of the country marvellously, and the broadly-expanding 

 leaves of the maples produce a dense canopy of shade 

 in the forest, hiding the granite boulders and prostrate 

 rampikes on the barren by covering the buslics with a 

 drapery of lovely green. Nothing can be l)rigliter than 

 American spring verdure, nor does it degenerate into 

 the dull heavy green of English summer foliage — the 

 leaves maintaininsj their vernal hue on the same branch, 

 side by side with tlie brilliant orange scarlet of their 

 dying fellows, at that beautiful season the fall of the 

 leaf 



