Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



a fiendish walking-stick it must be the devil's own choice. 

 The linking of * ' angelica-tree ' ' with such apt terras as 

 these finds no rational explanation in science or poetry. 

 In the South it attains a height of forty to fifty feet, 

 and its huge tuft of leaves spreading in all directions at 

 the summit produces something of the appearance of a 

 palm ; but at the North it has only a scrubby, surly 

 look of malignant deformity, ugly in summer, uglier in 

 winter. The massive leaf-stem is stout enough to be a 

 sizable branch, but the ultimate leaflets are scarcely three 

 inches long. In July and August, towering above its 

 palm-like elegance of foliage, rise long loose clusters of 

 whitish blossoms, which ripen into black berry-like fruit 

 that hangs long into the •..■inter. In its autumn tints of 

 yellow and red — the devil's sulphur and flames, to carry 

 out the analogy — it shows to best advantage. A large 

 cluster of these monstrosities are at the southwest comer 

 of the Lake, at the water's edge, and two specimens are 

 close to the walk which our companion-reader is now 

 following. 



SoPHORA Japonica. — Close by the angelica-tree is a 

 Japanese importation but little known, the sophora, of 

 erect, graceful form, and with pinnate leaves that are 

 quite suggestive of the locust, but more tapering. Like 

 so much of pinnate-leaved vegetation in tree, shrub, and 

 herb, this is a leguminose species, which means that its 

 type of flower and pod is that of the pea and bean. The 

 association of these forms of leaves and flowers, and the 

 frequency of yellow blossoms in this family are facts for 

 which science as yet offers no explanation. 



lOO 



