PLANT COMMUNITIES: SEASONAL CHANGES. 4-13 



sprays, overhangs some cliff, and the cockspur thorn (cratasgus) 

 vies with it in the profusion of floral display. Near by sheets of 

 water pour themselves unceasingly on the rocks below, scattering 

 spray on the thirsty marchantia. Out from the steep slopes 

 above rise the graceful sprays of yew (taxus), shaded by the 

 towering hemlock spruces. The ' ' walking-fern ' ' here, holding 

 fast above, climbs downward by long graceful strides. 



723. But the scene shifts, and while these flowers cast their 

 beauty for the season, others put on their glory. The flowering 



Fig. 504- 

 Spray of kalmia flowers. 



dogwood spreads its deceptive bracts as a halo around the clus- 

 ters of insignificant flowers. The laurel (kalmia) with its clus- 

 ters of fluted pinkish blossoms is a joy only too brief. Smaller 

 and less pretentious ones abound, like the whortleberries, am- 

 phicarpaga, bush-clover (lespedeza), sarsaparilla, and so on. 



724. In the autumn the glen is clothed with another robe of 

 beauty. With the fall of the "sere and yellow leaf," golden- 



