STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
exceeding twelve or fifteen feet in height; it is very sym- 
metrical in its growth, forming a fine compact pyramid, 
covered early in the month of May with an abundance of 
crowded racemes of elegant white flowers, sometimes tinged 
with pink; the blossoms come somewhat before the tender 
silken leaf-buds unfold. The foliage is delicately and 
sharply cut at the margins of the thin ovate oblong leaves, 
which are soft, silky and folded together. The fruit of this 
pretty June-berry is small; when ripe it is of a pink or rose 
color, sweet and juicy, but somewhat insipid; not so nice as 
another form which is known in some places by the name of 
“ Sheepberry.”* This forms a handsome bush about ten feet 
high, the flower and fruit larger than the former, the berries 
dark red, almost purple when ripe in July, with a pleasant 
nutty flavor. Open thickets on the sides of ravines on the 
Rice Lake plains were favorite localities for the Sheepberry. 
Another dwarf June-berry, not more than five or six feet 
high or less, grows in the sandy flats on these same plains. 
This is a pretty, low shrub with greenish-white racemes of 
flowers and oval leaves; fruit dark purplish-red and sweet, 
but the berries are small, not larger than currants; the 
bark of the branchlets of this little June-berry is dark red, 
and the leaves are very downy underneath; the fruit is ripe 
in July and August, about the same time as the Huckle- 
berries. 
; Dwarr CHERRY—SAND CHERRY—Prunus pumila (L.). 
The Dwarf Cherry, more commonly known as Sand 
Cherry, is chiefly found on light sandy lands; it is a low 
bushy shrub, from eighteen inches to two feet in height; 
the slender branches are inclined to trail upon the ground, 
sometimes rooting; the centre stem is more upright. This 
*This is a local name ; the name “‘Sheepberry” properly belongs to Viburnum Lentago. 
164 
