STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
principle is one of the characteristics of the family, and 
probably our native plants might prove as valuable tonics 
as the foreign root were they tested. The Five-flowered 
Gentian is very unlike the bright and more showy blossomed 
species described above. The flowers, in fives, are narrow 
bells of a delicate pale lilac tint, clustered in the axils otf 
the narrow light-green leaves; the plant is found sometimes 
on dry, grassy banks, and in the angles of fences by the road- 
side. 
I have a specimen closely resembling the above species, 
sent from Iowa, the chief difference being that the tips of the 
slender flower-tubes are of a deep dark blue—our Canadian 
flower being only slightly tinted with very pale lilac. I 
have never found any of the Gentians growing in the forest, 
though several species seem to flourish in partial shade in 
open thickets. 
With the Gentians I have brought to a close the floral 
season of the Canadian year. A few stragglers may yet be 
found amongst late Asters and Golden-rods, in sheltered 
glens and lonely hollows, but the glory of the year has 
departed—gone with the last deep blue bell of the loveliest | 
of her race, the Calathian Violet, the solitary flower of the 
Indian Summer. All that now remains for us is the bright 
frosted foliage of the dwarf oaks and the scarlet-tinged 
leaves of the low huckleberry bushes; the brilliant berries 
of the leafless Winterberry, Ilex verticillata (Gray), and the 
clustered garlands of the Climbing Bitter-Sweet, Celastrus 
scandens, which hang among the branches of the silver- 
barked birch and other forest trees, or near the margin of 
lake or stream; and the crimson fruit of the frost-touched 
High-bush Cranberry, Viburnum Opulus—while on dry, 
stony hills and rugged rocks the Bearberry covers with its 
creeping branches of dark green shining leaves and gay 
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