FLOWERING SHRUBS 
WiLp Rep Currant—Ribes rubrum (L.). 
This is said to be identical with our cultivated Garden 
Currant. In its wild state the fruit is small, very acid, and 
not unpalatable or unwholesome, but has a flavor of the 
astringent bark. This woody taste is common to many of 
our fruits in their natural state, but seems to be much 
reduced by care and cultivation. 
JUNE-BERRY—SHADBUSH—Amelanchier Canadensis 
(T. & G.). 
The June-berries are not very ornamental shrubs, but 
their fruit is quite pleasant and wholesome, especially when 
mixed with acid berries, such as currants and cherries. 
The tallest of the genus is the Shadbush, which is so called 
from the flowers appearing when the shadflies first rise from 
the water in the month of May. 
The elegant white flowers of this pretty tree (for it rises 
to the height of twenty feet) adorn the banks of our rivers 
and lakes and enliven the surrounding woods, breaking the 
monotony of their verdure by the contrast of the snow-white 
pendent buds and blossoms. The branches of the Shadbush 
are somewhat straggling; the leaves of a bluish-green, ovate 
and serrated, white underneath; at first they are of a red- 
dish-bronze, but they take a bright tint of green when. 
more mature. The flowers are on slender footstalks, the 
petals narrow and wavy. The calyx remains persistent, as: 
in the pear and apple. The fruit is of a dark red, sweet 
and pleasant. This tree loves gravelly banks and may 
usually be found near rivers. It is the tallest of the June- 
berries; it thrives well under garden culture and is a pretty 
object when in flower, but not so much so as the next 
variety, Amelanchier Canadensis, var. oblongifolia, which is 
a tall, upright, slenderly-branched pyramidal bush, rarely 
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