White and Greenish 



its small, flat-topped white flower-clusters in June or July ; and, 

 finally, by its white or lead-colored fruit. 



In good, rich, moist soil another white-fruited species, the 

 Panicled Cornel or Dogwood (C candidissima) — C.paniculata of 

 Gray — rears its much-branched, smooth, gray stems. In May or 

 June the shrub is beautiful with numerous convex, loose clusters 

 of white flowers at the ends of the twigs. So far do the stamens 

 diverge from, the pistil that self-pollination is not likely ; but an 

 especially large number of the less specialized insects, seeking the 

 freely exposed nectar, do all the necessary work as they crawl 

 about and fly from shrub to shrub. This species bears compara- 

 tively long and narrow leaves, pale underneath. Its range is from 

 Maine to the Carolinas and westward to Nebraska. 



Pokeweed ; Scoke ; Pigreon-berry ; Ink-berry; 



Garget * 



{Phytolacca decandra) Pokeweed family 



i%z£/if/-j— White, with a green centre, pink-tinted outside, about 

 % in. across, in bracted racemes 2 to 8 in. long. Calyx of 4 

 or 5 rounded persistent sepals, simulating petals ; no corolla ; 

 10 short stamens; lo-celled ovary, green, conspicuous; styles 

 curved. Stem: Stout, pithy, erect, branching, reddening 

 toward the end of summer, 4 to 10 ft. tall, from a large, 

 perennial, poisonous root. Leaves: Alternate, petioled, ob- 

 long to lance-shaped, tapering at both ends, 8 to 12 in. long. 

 Fruit: Very juicy, dark purplish berries, hanging in long 

 clusters from reddened footstalks ; ripe, August — October. 



Preferred Habitat — Roadsides, thickets, field borders, and waste 

 soil, especially in burnt-over districts. 



Flowering Season — June — October. 



Distribution — Maine and Ontario to Florida and Texas. 



When the pokeweed is " all on fire with ripeness," as Thoreau 

 said ; when the stout, vigorous stem (which he coveted for a 

 cane), the large leaves, and even the footstalks, take on splendid 

 tints of crimson lake, and the dark berries hang heavy with juice 

 in the thickets, then the birds, with increased, hungry families, 

 gather in flocks as a preliminary step to travelling southward. 

 Has the brilliant, strong-scented plant no ulterior motive in thus 

 attracting their attention at this particular time ? Surely ! Rob- 

 ins, flickers, and downy woodpeckers, chewinks and rose-breasted 

 grosbeaks, among other feathered agents, may be detected in the 

 act of gormandizing on the fruit, whose undigested seeds they will 



* This species was accidentally misplaced. It should have preceded the Starry 

 Campion. 



229 



