STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
SWEET-GALE—Myrica Gale (L.). 
This sweet-scented low shrub may be found bordering the 
rocky shores of our inland Northern lakes in great abun- 
dance, and may be readily recognized by its bluish dull- 
green leaves and the fine scent of the plant. The leaves 
when stirred or crushed give out a fine aroma resembling 
that of the Sweet-fern, Comptonia asplenifolia, but of higher 
flavor. The sterile catkins, closely clustered, appear 
before the leaves; the seed is contained in rough scaly 
heads; the leaves are toothed at the edges, broader at the 
upper end and narrowing at the base. The whole bush 
scarcely exceeds four feet in height, but throws out many 
small branches, forming a close hedge-like thicket near 
the margins of lakes and ponds, those lonely inland waters, 
where, undisturbed for ages, it has flourished and sent forth 
its sweetness on the desert air—“ just for itself and God.” 
Yet the qualities of this shrub have not been quite over- 
looked by the native Indians and by some of the old inhabi- 
tants of the back country, who use the leaves in home-made 
diet drinks and in infusions for purifying the blood. 
As the luxuries of civilization creep in among the settlers, 
they abandon the uses of many of the medicinal herbs that 
formerly supplied the place of drugs from stores. The old 
simplers and herbalists are a cult now nearly extinct. I 
am inclined to agree with a statement I once heard, to the 
effect that hot stoves and doctors’ drugs have fostered or 
introduced many of the diseases that carry our young people 
to an early grave and have rendered the old ones prema- 
turely infirm. 
New JERSEY TeA—ReEDROoT—Ceanothus Americanus (L.). 
There is an historical interest attached to the name of 
this very attractive shrub which still lingers in the memories 
of the descendants of the U. E. Loyalists in Canada and in 
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