Old Flower Favorites 
169 
“ I remember, I remember. 
The house where I was born/’ 
Ella Partridge had a tall Laburnum tree at her front 
door ; it peeped in the second-story windows. It was 
so cherished, that I doubt whether its blooms were 
ever gathered. She told us with conscious pride 
and rectitude that it was a cc yellow Wistaria tree 
which came from China ” ; I saw no reason to doubt 
her words, and as I never chanced to speak to my 
parents about it, I ever thought of it as a yellow 
Wistaria tree until I went out into the world and 
found it was a Scotch Laburnum. 
Pew garden owners plant now the Snowberry, 
Symphoricarpus racemosus , once seen in every front 
yard, and even used for hedges. It wasn't a very 
satisfactory shrub in its habit ; the oval leaves were 
not a cheerful green, and were usually pallid with 
mildew. The flowers were insignificant, but the 
clusters of berries were as pure as pearls. In country 
homes, before the days of cheap winter flowers and 
omnipresent greenhouses, these snowy clusters were 
cherished to gather in winter to place on coffins and 
in hands as white and cold as the berries. Its special 
offence in our garden was partly on account of this 
funereal association, but chiefly because we were never 
permitted to gather its berries to string into necklaces. 
They were rigidly preserved on the stem as a garden 
decoration in winter; though they were too closely 
akin in color to the encircling snowdrifts to be of 
any value. 
In country homes in olden times were found sev- 
