SWEET-GALE FAMILY. 



MYRICACEtE. 

 Sweet-fern. Myrica asplenifolia. 



Found in April, on dry uplands and along copse borders. 



A tough-fibred bush, from 1 to 2 feet high, with many low 

 branches, very leafy, the bark rough, and reddish, or when old covered 

 by a gray bloom. 



The long narrow leaf is cut to the midrib into many narrow and 

 irregular lobes, with an entire or slightly notched margin, and a thin 

 texture ; the surface is smooth above, and rough underneath ; the color 

 a cool strong green. The leaves are set on short foot-stems, placed 

 irregularly and close together. They come following after the flower 

 catkins. 



The pistil-bearing flowers gathered in an inconspicuous crimson 

 cluster, like a scrubby little paint brush, and the stamen-bearing flowers, 

 borne in the form of a slender green and brown catkin, are often found 

 on the same plant ; they grow close to the ends of the stalk in small 

 groups. 



After the blossom season is over, the plant puts forth its thick 

 foliage, and so flavors the air from earliest spring till near midwinter, 

 with the sweet aroma which belongs to both leaf and flower. Though 

 not evergreen, the dried leaves often cling to the bushes until the new 

 growth displaces them. This is a genuine New England colonist of our 

 sterile pasture hills, growing in large clumps and groups with hardy 

 persistence. 



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