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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



dies. The flowers appear in May, form in 

 white clusters, calling the insect host with both 

 appeal of beauty and the allurement of fra- 

 grance. They have a great many visitors, the 

 bees coming more frequently than the butter- 

 flies. 



The berries develop in September. They are 

 garnet-colored and translucent, with a shiny, 

 polished appearance. They are not berries, 

 from a scientific standpoint, but belong to the 

 apple type of fruits. They fall off when the 

 frosts become frequent, while the leaves grad- 

 ually assume that variegated coloring where 

 red and green and yellow are mixed in vary- 

 ing proportions and with gorgeous effect. 



Longspine thorns are sometimes used as a 

 stock upon which to graft apples and other 

 pome fruits. They are rapid growers, the 

 shoot of a single year being sufficiently large 

 to serve as a walking stick. The species is one 

 of a large group known as the hawthorns. 

 Prior to 1899 there were about 65 species of 

 hawthorns known, of which some 25 were in 

 North America. At present about 600 species 

 have been described. 



AMERICAN HOLLY 

 Ilex opaca Ait. [Plate VII] 



The American holly occurs from Massachu- 

 setts to Florida and from Indiana to the Gulf 

 of Mexico, reaching its greatest abundance in 

 the coast regions, its greatest size in Texas, 

 and its greatest beauty in the Carolina moun- 

 tains. While in Texas and Arkansas holly 

 trees often attain a height of 45 feet and a 

 diameter of four feet, in the North they are 

 rarely more than 10 feet high or more than a 

 few inches in diameter. The holly leaves 

 sometimes hold fast for three years, usually 

 staying until driven off by some ambitious suc- 

 cessor. They are stiff, leathery, and spine- 

 tipped. 



Few plants are less subject to insect tres- 

 passers than the holly, although the leaves are 

 a favorite food of the caterpillar of the pretty 

 azure-blue butterfly (Polyommatus argiolus). 



The tree usually blooms in May or June, the 

 flowers being small and greenish white in color. 



The fruit of the holly is eaten with impunity 

 by birds, though considered poisonous to man. 

 The rare combination of these bright, cheery 

 berries with the shiny green leaves makes the 

 holly much admired. Its beauty, however, is 

 proving, as usual, a somewhat dangerous gift. 

 Unless protected from the axes of the foliage 

 and shrubbery gatherers, there is grave danger 

 that it will disappear in half a century. 



The wood of the holly is fine-grained and is 

 employed extensively in cabinet-making, inlay 

 work, and the manufacture of musical instru- 

 ments. It is also used for engravers 5, blocks 

 and for rollers for printing cotton goods. 



There are about 175 species in the holly 

 group of plants, a dozen or more being found 

 in the United States, including some that bear 

 bkck berries and others that yield yellow ones. 



The holly's use as a decoration is thought to 



be a survival of the usages of the Roman 

 Saturnalia. It was the custom, before that 

 celebration in commemoration of the blessings 

 of agriculture degenerated into a period of 

 unbridled license, to send a sprig of holly with 

 a gift, as a token of good wishes. The Chris- 

 tian custom of decorating houses at Christmas 

 seems _ to have come from the pagans. The 

 Council of Bracara forbade such decking of 

 houses with all green things, alleging it to be 

 a pagan observance. 



HIGHBUSH CRANBERRY 

 Viburnum americanum Mill. [Plate VII] 



The highbush cranberry belongs to the honey- 

 suckle family and has a fruit of the peach 

 rather than of the berry type. 



This shrub grows from three to fourteen 

 feet tall, with smooth stems and gray brown 

 or buff branches. It is a native of Siberia, and 

 in North America has a range reaching from 

 Newfoundland and British Columbia to New 

 Jersey and Iowa, being variously known as the 

 "American guelder rose," the "cranberry tree," 

 etc. It thrives best in upland soils, where the 

 true cranberry cannot live. 



The familiar snowball tree is a sterile form 

 of the highbush cranberry. 



The flowers of the highbush cranberry ap- 

 pear in May and June and consist of masses 

 of small, white blossoms. 



The berries of the fertile plant come in early 

 summer. They remain on the bush all winter, 

 their flavor being too sharp even for the bold 

 appetite of a hungry bird. 



THE CHOKEBERRIES 



Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Britton 



Aronia atropurpurea Britton 



Aronia arbutifolia (L.) Ell. 

 [Plate VIII] 



Botanists are not agreed as to the classifica- 

 tion of the black, purple, and red chokeberries 

 shown in plate VIII. Some assign all to a 

 single species; others regard the red as a dis- 

 tinct species and the purple and black as varia- 

 tions of another. Some say all belong to the 

 sorbus group of plants, to which the mountain 

 ash belongs, while other include them in the 

 pyrus group, to which the berry crabapple and 

 the Japan quince belong. 



The berries of all three have the common 

 quality of astringency, their every-day name 

 being a tribute to their power to constrict the 

 throats of those who eat them. They occur 

 in moist thickets and swamps from New Eng- 

 land and Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 growing from two to six feet high. 



The black species is found in altitudes as 

 great as 6,000 feet. Its flowers appear in early 

 summer and its berries in August, shriveling 

 and dropping early. The purple species blos- 

 soms from April to June and its berries ma- 

 ture in September. The seasons of the red 

 variety are but little different. 



THE MARCH NUMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHIC WILL HAVE 32 PAGES IN COLOR 



