Examine a well-developed ball of bloom on the button-bush under a magnifying glass to appreciate its perfection of detail. After counting two hundred and fifty minute florets, tightly clustered, one's tired eyes give out. A honey-ball, with a well of nectar in each of these narrow tubes, invites hosts of insects to its hospitable feast; but only visitors long and slender of tongue can drain the last drop, therefore the vicinity of this bush is an excellent place for a butterfly collector to carry his net. Butterflies are by far the most abundant visitors; honey-bees also abound, bumblebees, carpenter and mining bees, wasps, a horde of flies, and some destructive beetles; but the short tongues can reach little nectar. Why do the pistils of the florets protrude so far? Even before each minute bud opened, all its pollen had been shed on the tip of the style, to be in a position to be removed by the first visitor alighting on the ball of bloom. After the removal of the pollen from the still immature stigma, it becomes sticky, to receive the importation from other blossoms. Did not the floret pass through two distinct stages, first male, then female, self-fertilization, not cross-fertilization, would be the inevitable result. The dull red and green seed-balls, which take on brown and bronze tints after frost, make beautiful additions to an autumn bouquet. The bush is next of kin to the coffee. PARTRIDGE VINE; TWIN-BERRY; MITCHELLA-VINE; SQUAW-BERRY (Mitchella repens) Madder family Flowers - Waxy, white (pink in bud), fragrant, growing in pairs at ends of the branches. Calyx usually 4-lobed; corolla funnel-form, about 1/2 in. long, the 4 spreading lobes bearded within; 4 stamens inserted on corolla throat; style with 4 stigmas; the ovaries of the twin flowers united. (The style is long when the stamens are short, or vice versa). Stem: Slender, trailing, rooting at joints, 6 to 12 in. long, with numerous erect branches. Leaves: Opposite, entire, short petioled, oval or rounded, evergreen, dark, sometimes white veined. Fruit: A small, red, edible, double berry-like drupe. Preferred Habitat - Woods; usually, but not always, dry ones. Flowering Season - April-June. Sometimes again in autumn. Distribution - Nova Scotia to the Gulf States, westward to Minnesota and Texas.