VINES AND SHRUBS 



regions, very few being found in tropical countries. Willow 

 trees of the temperate regions sometimes attain large size 

 and live a long time. They grow mostly in wet places, and 

 are of use in holding the soil of sloping river-banks together, 

 also for forming wind-breaks. Osier willows are used for 

 baskets and wicker-work. It is said that Alexander Pope 

 planted the first willow in England, by taking a twig which 

 was in a box of figs from the Levant and thrusting it into the 

 ground. 



Bayberry. Waxberry 



Myrica, carolinensis . — Family, Sweet Gale. Color of catkins, 

 green. Leaves, oblong or lance - shape, narrow at base, some- 

 what toothed along the middle, thin, green on both sides, dotted 

 with resinous glands. The two kinds of flowers are in separate 

 catkins, each with a bract and a second pair of bractlets. 3 to 5 

 feet high. 



Sandy soil, near the coast, pine woods and dry thickets, 

 New England to Florida. A familiar shrub with fragrant 

 leaves owing to resinous drops. The nut -like fruit bears 

 grains of wax which used to be collected and made into 

 candles. These candles, if burned on Hallowe'en, were 

 supposed to keep off witches. 



Sweet Gale 



M. Gale* — Catkins appear in early spring, before the long, nar- 

 row, wedge-shaped leaves. 



A fragrant, woody, tenacious shrub, 4 or 5 feet high, with 

 bark something like black birch, often small-dotted. The 

 stiff, hard heads of nuts formed from the fertile catkins of 

 flowers might be tiny pine cones. Each nutlet, under the 

 magnifying-glass, shows 3 points, 2 being made from " scales" 

 which cover the seed from the base. Small resinous bits of 

 wax (seen only under the glass) dot the nutlets. The cones, 

 £ inch long, are crowded together on the fruiting branch. A 

 shrub of the swamps from Maine to Virginia. 



Robert Beverly, in History of Virginia (published 1705), 

 states that " at the mouths of their rivers, and all along upon 

 the sea and bay, and near many of their creeks and swamps, 

 the myrtle grows, bearing a berry of which they make a hard, 

 brittle wax of a curious green color, which by refining becomes 

 almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are 

 never greasy to the touch, and do not melt with lying in the 



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