THE WOODLAND ROAD. 83 



odor. This shrub is common in the dense copses 

 that flank the marshes near the coast, from Maine to 

 Georgia. The perfume of the white alder, like that 

 of the common milkweed, is cloyingly sweet, but both 

 odors, as I remember them, are pleasantly reminis- 

 cent of the heat and drowsy idleness of midsummer, 

 and they are inseparable from the peaceful hum of 

 the bumblebee, the intermittent ^'■zipping" of the 

 green grasshopper {Orchelimwn vulgare), and the 

 vigorous, loud s-szip, s-szip, s-szip of the greener, 

 cone-headed grasshopper [Conocephalus ensiger). 

 Clethra grows from three to ten feet high, and is so 

 beautiful when in full bloom that I greatly wonder 

 why it is not in common cultivation ; but, like Cas- 

 sandra, Andromeda, Leucothw, and several other 

 splendid members of the Heath family, it is left to 

 bloom in its native wilds, while innumerable foreign 

 species of less attractive appearance are put in the 

 gardener's hands for him to nurse with arduous care, 

 resulting in indiiierent success through our rigorous 

 l^^^orthern winters. 



There are four other lesser members of this in- 

 teresting family, all of which are common on the 

 wooded road. The first of these is prince's pine or 

 pipsissewa [Cliimaphila tomhellata). This beautiful 

 little evergreen-leaved plant puts forth its waxy, 

 flesh-pink blossoms in June and July. Let us look 



