Wild flowers of the north-eastern states : $b Being three hundred and eight individuals common to the north-eastern United States
John Stuart Mill · en
The real flowers are small, and many; bunched together in a close, flat
cluster, which is surrounded by 4 large, greenish-white, petal-like
leaves, giving the semblance of a single large flower, rising, on a
small foot-stem, above the leaves.
The seeds of this little plant take the form of a bunch of brilliant
sealing-wax-red berries, set in the center of the greenery, and nodding
on the stem with their own weight.
[Illustration: BUNCHBERRY: Cornus Canadensis.]
HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY.
CAPRIFOLIACEÆ.
*Smooth-leaved Honeysuckle.* _Lonicera glauca._
Found in rocky grounds and uplands during May.
A bushy, and somewhat twining shrub, leafy and tough, which grows from
3 to 5 feet high, with a gray bark, that is green when young.
The rather large leaf is oval, and broadest at the base, with a rounded
tip, and an entire margin; the fibre is firm and the surface is smooth;
in color it is green, silvery underneath. The leaves occur opposite
each other, the upper ones growing completely together around the
stalk, the lower being only partly united.
The small flower has a slender tubular corolla spreading into 2 unequal
divisions, the upper broad, and 4-cleft, the lower entire, long, and
narrow; in color a pale, dull tawny or red; the 5 long stamens, with
their very distinct tips, are pale greenish-yellow; the long pistil is
tipped with a green disc; the round calyx is minutely 5-parted, and
green. The flowers, on the ends of the branches, are set close around
the stalk in whorls, usually of 6, after the Honeysuckle habit.
What charm the flowers lack in fragrance, the plant makes up in the
graceful curves of its partly twining stems, and in its attractive
leafage.
[Illustration: SMOOTH-LEAVED HONEYSUCKLE: Lonicera glauca.]
*Maple-leaved Arrow-wood.* _Viburnum acerifolium._
*Dockmackie.*
Found in light, rocky woods, in May and June.
The tough, woody stalk, growing from 2 to 3 feet high, is branching,
and covered with a smooth brown bark.
The broad, 3-lobed leaf much resembles a maple leaf in outline; it has,
however, a soft downy surface, especially beneath,--the upper side is
sometimes smooth. The leaves are set in pairs, on short foot-stems.
Color green.
The small, 5-parted flower has 5 stamens, alternating with its rounded
divisions. The flowers are white, and the buds pink-tinted; they grow
in a flat-topped cluster, on a foot-stem springing from between the
terminal pair of leaves.
In the softly diffused light of the autumn woods, its clusters of black
berries, and mulberry colored leafage prove attractive to the æsthetic
eye. Its habit of growth also is pleasing.
[Illustration: MAPLE-LEAVED ARROW-WOOD: Viburnum acerifolium.]
*Linnæa.* _Linnæa borealis._
*Twin-flower.*
Found in cool, mossy woods, and cold damp bogs; blossoming in early
June.
A trailing vine with a round, rough, and woody-fibred, reddish stem,
running over the ground.