BLACK, BLUE AND PURPLE FRUIT 
Wild Sarsaparilla {Aralia midicauUs). Ginseng family. 
From a very short stem, practically underground, rises a 
single fruit-stalk, ])erhaps a foot high, and a single leaf-stalk. 
The dark-purple berries are in a compound umbel at the end of 
the fruit-stalk. The root is aromatic. The main leaf -stalk 
divides at the top into three slender stalks, each of which bears 
five leaflets pinnately set. Open woods. Midsummer. 
Spikenard {Aralia racemosa). Ginseng family. 
An openly branching plant several feet high, with doubly 
toothed, heart-shaped leaflets. The fruit is small, berry-Hke, 
dark purple or black, many in a long cluster. The root is 
aromatic. Early autumn, in woody regions. 
Blackberry Lily {Belamcanda chinensis). Iris family. 
From the grass-like leaves at the base rises a tall flower- 
bearing stalk. The fruit suggests a blackberry with many 
grains. Not commonly found wild in New England, though 
sometimes under cultivation here, for example, in the Har- 
vard Botanic Garden. July to September. (Old East Indian 
name.) 
Rattle-box ( Crotalaria sagittalis) . Pulse family. 
A low plant with leaves whose stipules run down the stem. 
The fruit is an inflated pod three-fourths inch long, black, with 
little round seeds which rattle at maturity. The fruit gives 
the English name, the stipules the Latin. 
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