STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
for medicinal uses; the bark and twigs (for it is in these 
the aroma is contained), mingled with tobacco, form one of 
their luxuries. The spicy, sweet-scented wood long retains 
its flavor, even when dried, and is most agreeable. The bush 
is about four or five feet high; the bark of the older branches 
is gray and smooth, but the young twigs and leafstalks are 
blackish. The flowers in this, as in Leatherwood, appear in 
umbel-like clusters in April, before the foliage is developed ; 
the blossoms are yellow or honey-colored, the leaves entire, 
very smooth, darkish green, oblong and pale underneath. 
This shrub belongs to the Laurel tribe, and is nearly allied 
to the Sassafras. The natives make a fever drink of the 
twigs, besides chewing and smoking the bark. 
TRAILING ARBUTUS—MAYFLOWER—E pigea repens (L.). 
(PLATE XVIII) 
The fragrant, graceful Hpigea repens, the sweet May- 
flower of the Northern States and of our own Canada, is 
too lovely to be forgotten in these short floral biographies; 
indeed, this pretty trailing evergreen is well deserving of a 
place amongst the most cherished treasures of the con- 
servatory, for few exceed it in beauty and none in fragrance. 
It is to be found within the pine forests, beneath trees where 
but a scanty herbage flourishes, and on dry, sandy and 
rocky ground we see its evergreen shining ovate leaves and 
delicate pink flowers covering the ground during the month 
of May. The Americans know it by the name of Mayflower, 
0 called from its season of blossoming; in England it is a 
favorite greenhouse shrub, under the name of Trailing 
Arbutus. The leaves rise on long footstalks from the some 
what horizontal branches, and are unequal in size, the 
largest being nearest to the summit; the leafstalks are 
clothed with clammy reddish-colored hairs, which contain 
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