Music of the Wild 



No nature-lo^er has described this as 1 found it, 

 and no decorator has conventionaHzed it; yet surely 



A New Ac- the berries stand close tlie head of tlie beauty class. 



quaintance j^,.i||i.i,it color of Cliincse-red and coral-pink at- 

 tracted me, and on investigation I found a plant 

 of half bush, half vining habit, close two feet in 

 height, its stems straight, round, slender, faizitly 

 bluish-green, its leaves shaped much like and re- 

 sembling in veining and color those of some plum 

 trees I know. It had seeded in a burr, shaped and 

 toothed f)utside like that of a beechnut, but almost 

 four times larger, and of warm coral-pink color. 

 These biu'rs hung over the plant profusely from 

 very long, fine threads of stems, and being ripe, 

 had burst open, revealing four 2)artitions covered 

 by a thin Chinese-red membrane. In some this 

 had opened in a straight line down the middle, 

 drawing back each way, and evicting at the four 

 points of the pink burr a bright-red berry 

 fastened by an extremely short stem. These were 

 really a seed, of pearl color, oval, and a little ob- 

 long in shajDC, one end touched with flecks of red 

 like a bird's egg, and envelo])e(l in a red, pulpy 

 cover. I have found this plant only four times in 

 all my life afield, an<l for brilliant color and com- 

 plicated arrangement of seeding I do not remem- 

 ber its equal. Ebony in us AinericaiiKs is its re- 

 sounding scientific name. If it is sufiiciently well 

 known to have a common one I can not find it. 



96 



