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If you should happen to pass these bushes in early 

 summer (June), you will see their bloom-panicles 

 of white flowers (mostly at the ends of the branches). 

 The flowers are four petalled and their corollas are 

 funnel form. They are to me, at least, very unpleas- 

 ant in their odor — a sickish smell, which I wish to 

 get away from as soon as I come near it. These 

 flowers change into small black berries. 



This beautiful species of privet, though known gen- 

 erally as Californian privet, really comes from China 

 and Japan. It is a profuse bloomer and in its season 

 is covered with its white flower clusters. In the 

 autumn its leaves turn a beautiful cold bronze and 

 their glossy, satin-like finish makes their effects truly 

 exquisite. 



Not very far along a little by-path slips away at 

 your left down an easy run of stone steps toward the 

 Pond. The Californian privet makes a bower of it, 

 shooting out its lances of straight branches like 

 masses of soldiery at charge bayonets. 



As you go down the steps at your right, a 

 little back from the steps, half hidden by the sur- 

 rounding shrubbery, chiefly privet, you will see a 

 small tree with a low-branching, rather squat trunk. 

 Were the tree not so hidden, you would notice that its 

 bark is of a brittle-looking gray. Its limbs are lumpy 

 looking in spots and it carries a compound leaf made 

 up of from five to nine lance-oblong leaflets. These 

 leaflets often have their margins crumpled and curled. 

 The tree is the manna tree or European flowering 

 ash, and is used very extensively as an ornamental 



