go 



and follow its southern trend along the lower end of 

 the Ball Ground. Not far from the scarlet oak, as 

 we go eastward, we find a fair specimen of the sour 

 gum tree, or tupelo, or pepperidge, as it is often 

 called. If its leaves are off, you can pick it out by its 

 tangles of branches. It seems to branch every way 

 and anyway. Its glory is in autumn. Then its glossy 

 leaves kindle with brilliant hues of scarlet and richest 

 maroon. The leaves, oblong or oval, have a peculiar 

 way of crowding about the ends of the side branches, 

 which is so characteristic of the tree, that this feature 

 will quite easily identify it for you. The leaves are 

 thickish, with margin entire, and often strongly angu- 

 lated beyond the middle. They are of a rich shining 

 polished green ; either wedge-shaped or rounded at the 

 base, and are usually from two to five inches long. 

 The tree blooms in April or May, in dense clusters of 

 yellowish-green flowers, and these are succeeded by 

 egg-shaped bluish-black berries, clustered two or three 

 together on long slender stems, from the axils of the 

 leaves. The bark of the tree is of a light reddish- 

 brown, and is heavily furrowed and decidedly scaly. 

 The sour gum is a tree of the swamps and moist places. 

 As you go eastward, the Walk eddies gently in by 

 a large mass of rock. As you face it, on your right, 

 is red maple, and, on your left, close by the rock, is 

 a splendid specimen of the pignut hickory. In the 

 left-hand corner of this little bay of the Walk is 

 English hawthorn. Following on eastward again, an 

 Oriental plane tree stands in the point of the next 

 fork of the Walk, and out upon the sward of the 



