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 YEW BERRY 



August 10, 1858. Am surprised to find the yew 

 with ripe fruit, where I had not detected fertile 

 flowers. It fruits very sparingly, the berries grow- 

 ing singly here and there, on last year's wood, and 

 hence four to six inches below the extremities of the 

 upturned twigs. It is the most surprising berry that 

 we have : first, since it is borne by an evergreen, hem- 

 lock-like bush with which we do not associate a soft 

 and bright-colored berry, and hence its deep scarlet 

 contrasts the more strangely with the pure, dark 

 evergreen needles; and secondly, because of its form, 

 so like art, and which could be easily imitated in wax, 

 a very thick scarlet cup or mortar with a dark-purple 

 bead set at the bottom. My neighbors are not pre- 

 pared to believe that such a berry grows in Concord. 



Journal, xi, 90, 91. 



RATTLESNAKE-PLANTAIN 



August 19, 1851. By the Marlborough road I 

 notice the richly veined leaves of the Neottia pubes- 

 cens, or veined neottia, rattlesnake-plantain. I like 

 this last name very well, though it might not be easy 

 to convince a quibbler or proser of its fitness. We 

 want some name to express the mystic wildness of its 

 rich leaves. Such work as men imitate in their em- 

 broidery, unaccountably agreeable to the eye, as if it 



