THE CRANBERRY MARSH. 



To THE EYE of the botanist our cranberry marshes are 

 fields of beauty and of great interest. 



Elegant wreaths of this beautiful evergreen plant, 

 with its tiny dark green, glossy leaves, trail over lovely 

 peat mosses, the Sphagnum cymbefolium and the 

 Sphagnum ciliare. 



The delicate pink bells, pendent on their light thready 

 stalks, are seen through the season with the fruit in 

 every stage of growth and color, from the tiny dot not 

 larger than the head of a pin to the pear-shaped, full- 

 sized berry, green, yellow and bright purplish-red, 

 hanging among the soft, creamy mosses; and, often, 

 over all, a forest of the stately chain fern or the noble 

 Osmundi regalis, both of which love the moisture of 

 the peat soil and the cranberry marsh. 



These marshes are the nurseries of many other 

 varieties of ferns, flowers, orchids, plants and shrubs. 

 They are also the haunts of harmless species of snakes, 



