59^ 
Visiting  Old  Friends. 
>  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      Sept.,  1921. 
Back  of  the  fences,  along  the  edges  of  cultivated  fields  are  tan- 
gled patches  of  wild  blackberry  and  dewberry,  with  wild  strawberry 
plants,  now  long  since  the  fruiting  stage,  peeping  up  between.  The 
wild  rose  shows  by  its  abundant  red  hips,  the  glory  of  the  bloom 
that  has  passed  with  early  summer.  The  beach  plum,  low  and  strag- 
gling, the  haven  of  nesting  birds,  is  now  hung  with  purple  fruits  of 
honied  sweetness  with  an  attractively  bitter  after  tang.  The  Virginia 
creeper,  its  older  leaves  already  changing  to  scarlet,  clambers  over 
fence  and  tree,  showing  marked  contrast  to  the  deep  mossy  green  of 
the  cat  brier,  which  loves  the  edges  of  thickets  and  deep,  cool  woods. 
Leisurely  traversing  the  country  by  the  smaller  wood  roads, 
many  interesting  trees  and  shrubs  are  noted.  The  scrub  pine  is  pre- 
dominant in  certain  areas,  accompanied  by  the  ubiquitous  swamp 
and  blackjack  oaks.  The  foreground  is  of  bracken,  with  sensitive 
fern  bordering  the  roads.  Against  the  skyline  as  we  leave  the 
marshes  are  rows  of  cedars  with  their  wind-twisted  branches,  dis- 
torted but  defiant,  exemplifying  adaptability  and  stubbornness  at  the 
same  time,  often  assuming  grotesque  shapes  or  reminding  one  of  all 
kinds  of  unrelated  things. 
In  the  roadside  thickets  on  the  edges  of  the  woods,  the  sweet 
pepper  bush  reaches  out  its  fragrant  white  flower  clusters.  Here 
and  there  stands  up  a  button  bush  with  its  globular  flower  heads,  as 
if  in  martial  salute.  An  occasional  glimpse  of  the  glossy,  deep  green, 
spiny  leaves  of  the  holly  remind  us  of  Yuletide  decorations  and 
seem  strangely  out  of  place.  Its  closest  relative,  the  black  alder, 
too,  with  its  berries  in  close-clustered  whorls,  now  beginning  to  turn 
red,  is  a  reminder  of  Christmas  wreaths. 
Here  and  there  a  glimpse  of  a  single  scarlet  branch  on  a  tree 
yet  robed  in  living  green,  calls  attention  to  the  two  trees  that  even 
in  midsummer  anticipate  the  brilliancy  of  their  autumn  foliage.  They 
are  the  sour  gum  with  its  oval,  and  the  sweet  gum  with  its  star- 
shaped  leaves.  Dogwoods,  huckleberries  and  blueberries,  laurels, 
both  the  calico  bush  and  the  diminutive  sheep  laurel,  and  an  oc- 
casional viburnum,  are  observed  as  we  go  further  inland. 
As  we  pass  a  marshy  woods,  the  silvery,  silky  undersides  of  the 
swamp  magnolia  leaves  are  visible  in  all  directions,  and  one  longs  -for 
the  fragrance  that  surrounds  the  spot  in  early  June,  when  their  tightly 
wrapped,  cream  white  buds  shed  a  woodsy  odor,  which  often  per- 
fumes the  air  for  miles  at  a  stretch.    Here  we  pass  a  thicket,  in  the 
