502 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



posite leaves are 3-ribbed, roundish, 3-lobed, resembling those 

 of a maple, soft and downy underneath, sometimes heart- 

 shaped at base, toothed, 2 to 4 inches long. Fruit crimson, 

 becoming purple, the berries borne on slender stalks. 



This is a shrub 3 to 6 feet high, found in cool, rocky woods, 

 quite common in all the Atlantic States to North Carolina and 

 westward. 



77. Withe-rod 



V. cassinotdes is common in swamps or beside streams, flow- 

 ering early, bearing bluish-black berries in flat clusters clothed 

 with a bloom. The thickish leaves are entire, or roundishly 

 toothed, with veins not prominent, and no stipules. Branches 

 very tough, formerly somewhat used by farmers in tying bun- 

 dles. 



A shrub 6 to 12 feet high, found in New England, southward to 

 New Jersey, and westward. 



78. Downy Arrow-wood 



V. pubkscens, a species found in rocky ground Nor^h and 

 West, is a low, irregular shrub with nearly sessile, ovate to 

 oblong, acute or tapering, obscurely veined leaves, their under 

 surface softly downy on short petioles. Flowers in June, all 

 alike, in cymes, and the fruit dark purple. 



79. Arrow-wood 



V. dentdtum is a tall shrub, 5 to 15 feet, with gray bark, pale 

 green, broadly ovate, toothed, pointed leaves with prominent, 

 straight veins, on long and slender petioles. Often hairy 

 tufts fill the axils. Fruit blue or purplish in peduncled clus- 

 ters. 



Common in wet soil along the Atlantic coast as far as Georgia. 

 The wood was formerly used by Indians for making arrows. 



80. Black Haw 



V. prunifblium \s a tall (6 to 12 feet) shrub, found along the 



