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ity, withering up and becoming smaller. The Elder- 

 berry (Sambucus Canadensis) is also noticable: the 

 bushes are rather tall, stalks filled with pith, leaves 

 seven to eleven, cymes flat: the fruit is dark purple and 

 grows in bunches which are flat being the form of a 

 leaf, they are small, round, juicy and sweet; they are 

 much sought and are used in cooking. Skunk cabbage 

 also bears large bunches of scarlet berries which usually 

 appear in the latter part of summer; stem four or five 

 inches long; fruit in a compact head, poisonous if 

 eaten. 



There are numerous other bushes also which bear 

 berrses, some are of a beautiful blue while some are 

 black. The common Honey-suckle or Woodbine bears 

 small fruit which is green in summer and turns rich 

 black in winter. The Poke weed ( Phytollacca Decan- 

 dra) is an abundant bearer of berries, it is a large 

 weedlike plant having a hollow stem, the leaf stalks 

 and branches are red, found in low rich grounds flower- 

 ing throughout the entire summer., the fruit ripening 

 in autumn. Flowers white, stamens ten, the seed-pod 

 divided into ten divisions containing one seed each. 

 Berry rich purple, very juicy and often made into 

 red ink which lasts quite well, fading when very old: 

 if tightly corked when fresh it will force out the cork. 



Our birds have a great feasting and reveling during 

 the berry season, and it is chiefly these combined with 

 the seeds of various weeds upon which the survivors 

 subsist during the winter months when insect food has 

 departed and the ground is covered with snow; how 

 oft do we see them perched upon the top of a weed 

 that is raised above the snow, extracting the seeds, so 



