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beautiful, aromatic foliage, and lovely scarlet berries, which 

 gleam among the yellowing leaves in September. 



Mayday usually finds the shad -bushes (Amelanchier Botry- 

 apiiim) in bloom. In the swamps where they abound they 

 remind one of the snows so recently passed, but more often we 

 see but a solitary bush, lightly tossing its white arms and enjoying 

 its brief reign. If the weather is pleasant the flowers may remain 

 several days, but the first shower discourages them, and the 

 petals disappear. I knew one shad-bush years ago that was a 

 large tree, thirty-five or forty feet high. It was a beautiful 

 sight when in full bloom, for it stood on the edge of a dense 

 wood, and the trees back of it made a wonderful background for 

 its white flowers. 



From early in May, when their leaves and flowers are unfolding, 

 until the last leaf has fallen, the sassafras bushes and trees are 

 attractive. The flowers are a rather inconspicuous greenish 

 yellow, but the young leaves are olive green, more or less tinged 

 with rusty red, which disappears when the leaves are full grown. 

 In the fall they assume all shades of yellow and red, making a 

 gorgeous display lasting two or three weeks, if the weather is 

 favorable. 



Wild cherries abound. Pruniis serotina is the first to bloom, 

 but the flowers of P. virginiana are the prettier. Trees and 

 bushes are a mass of bloom for ten days or two weeks, and 

 every breeze brings the pleasantly bitter fragrance into the 

 house. And in August what a feast they set forth for the birds! 

 Wild canaries, orioles, robins, chippies, and others — by the 

 hundreds they gather in one small tree, and chatter most amiably 

 between mouthfuls. 



By the middle of May the pinxter flower {Azalea nudifiora) 

 is in bloom. It once clothed many slopes of the Ramapos, but 

 like its cousins, the trailing arbutus and mountain laurel, its 

 beauty is the cause of its destruction. In color the flowers 

 range from pure white to deep crimson and maroon, but these 

 extremes are very rare. The common shades are rosy purple, 

 purplish pink, and almost pure rose pink. There is a marked 

 difference in the shape of the flowers, some bushes bearing flowers 



