WITHE-ROD 



Leaves. — Opposite, simple, pinnately veined, ovate or oval, 

 narrowed or rounded at base, crenulate, acute at apex, thick in 

 texture, glabrous or nearly so. Autumnal tint first purple, then 

 turns to a rich vinous red. 



Flowers. — June, July. Perfect, white, borne in broad flat 

 pedunculate cymes two to four inches across. 



Calyx. — Tube adnate to the ovary ; border five-toothed. 



Corolla. — White, rotate five-lobed ; lobes spreading. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted on corolla-tube, exserted. 



Pistil. — Ovary inferior, style short, three-lobed. 



Fruit. — Drupe, globose to ovoid, dark blue, one-fourth of an 

 inch in diameter, stone round or oval, flattened. September. 



The best garden plant among our viburnums is Vi- 

 burnum cassinoides. An inhabitant of northern swamps, 

 it is distributed from Newfoundland to the Saskatche- 

 wan and southward to New Jersey. In its wild home 

 it is a loose, straggling shrub, but in cultivation it 

 takes on the graces of civilization and be- 

 comes compact, symmetrical, an ornament to 

 the race and the flower of the family. The 

 leaves are thick, leathery and rather dull 

 green; the flowers, which are cream-white, 

 are borne in broad five-rayed cymes four or 

 five inches across. They are succeeded by Leafofra«r- 

 abundant truit winch melts from pale green 

 into bright rose, and then darkens into blue-black; 

 berries of the three colors often appearing at the same 

 time. 



Viburnum nudum, the Large Withe-rod, is a bush ol 

 southern range which sometimes crosses our border. 

 It resembles Viburnum cassinoides, but blooms a little 

 later. 



Viburnum lantana, the Wayfaring Tree of Europe, is 



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