WILD FLOWERS [159]
guests we have to thank for the clusters of coral-red berries that make the shrub even more beautiful in September than in May.
Because it sometimes sends its straggling branches downward in loops that touch the ground and trip up the unwary pedestrian, who presumably hobbles off in pain, the bush received a name with which the stumbler will be the last to find fault. From the bark of the Wayfaring Tree of the Old World (V. lantana), the tips of whose procumbent branches often take root as they lie on the ground, is obtained bird-lime. No warm, sticky scales enclose the buds of our hardy hobble-bush; the only protection for its tender baby foliage is in the scurfy coat on its twigs; yet with this thin covering, or without it, the young leaves safely withstand the intense cold of northern winters.
The chief beauty of the HIGH BUSH-CRANBERRY, CRANBERRY TREE, or WILD GUELDER-ROSE (V. Opulus) lies in its clusters of bright red, oval, very acid "berries" (drupes), that are commonly used by country people as a substitute for the fruit they so closely resemble. This is a symmetrical, erect, tall, smooth shrub, found in moist, low ground. Among the Berkshires it grows in perfection. From New Jersey, Michigan, and Oregon far northward is its range; also in Europe and Asia. The broadly ovate, saw-edged, three-lobed leaves are more or less hairy along the veins on the underside. Like the hobble-bush, this one produces an outer circle of showy, neutral flowers, as advertisements, on its peduncled, flat cluster; and small, perfect ones, to reproduce the species, in June or July. As the flies and small pollen-collecting bees move rapidly over a corymb to feast on the layer of nectar freely exposed for their benefit, they usually cross-fertilize the flowers; for, as Muller pointed out, the anthers and stigmas of each come in contact with different parts of the insect's feet or tongue. Beetles, which visit the clusters in great numbers, often prove destructive visitors. Kerner claims that nectar is secreted in the leaves of this species, whether in the two glands that appear at the top of the petioles or not, he does not say. Of what possible advantage to the plant could such an arrangement be? Plants, as well as humans, are not in business for philanthropy.
No garden is complete - was garden ever complete? - without the beautiful SNOWBALL BUSH, a sterile variety of this shrub, with whose abundant balls of white flowers everyone is familiar. When various members of the viburnum and the hydrangea tribes are cultivated, the corollas of both the small interior flowers and those in the showy exterior circle become largely developed, while the reproductive organs of the former gradually become abortive. The snowball bush rather overdoes its advertising business; for however attractive its round white masses of sterile bloom, the effect is of no advantage to itself.
In light, dry, rocky woods, from North Carolina and Minnesota, far northward, grows the common MAPLE-LEAVED ARROW-WOOD or DOCKMACKIE (V. acerifolium), which one might easily mistake for a maple sapling when it is not in flower or fruit. All the blossoms in its slender peduncled, flat-topped, white clusters are perfect; none are sterile for advertising purposes merely, as in the cases of so many of its relatives. The five stamens protrude from each five-lobed little flower for plain reasons. The opposite leaves are broadly ovate, three-ribbed, three-lobed, coarsely toothed, acute at the tip, and, except for their soft hairiness underneath, are too like maple leaves to be mistaken. In autumn, when they take on rich tints, and the clusters of "berries" become first crimson, then nearly black, the shrub is a delight to see.
To become familiar with one of the Viburnum bushes is to recognize any member of the tribe when in blossom or fruit, for all spread more or less flattened, compound cymes of white flowers in late spring or early summer, followed by red or very dark "berries" (drupes); but it is on the leaves that we depend to name a species. The opposite, slender petioled,
Because it sometimes sends its straggling branches downward in loops that touch the ground and trip up the unwary pedestrian, who presumably hobbles off in pain, the bush received a name with which the stumbler will be the last to find fault. From the bark of the Wayfaring Tree of the Old World (V. lantana), the tips of whose procumbent branches often take root as they lie on the ground, is obtained bird-lime. No warm, sticky scales enclose the buds of our hardy hobble-bush; the only protection for its tender baby foliage is in the scurfy coat on its twigs; yet with this thin covering, or without it, the young leaves safely withstand the intense cold of northern winters.
The chief beauty of the HIGH BUSH-CRANBERRY, CRANBERRY TREE, or WILD GUELDER-ROSE (V. Opulus) lies in its clusters of bright red, oval, very acid "berries" (drupes), that are commonly used by country people as a substitute for the fruit they so closely resemble. This is a symmetrical, erect, tall, smooth shrub, found in moist, low ground. Among the Berkshires it grows in perfection. From New Jersey, Michigan, and Oregon far northward is its range; also in Europe and Asia. The broadly ovate, saw-edged, three-lobed leaves are more or less hairy along the veins on the underside. Like the hobble-bush, this one produces an outer circle of showy, neutral flowers, as advertisements, on its peduncled, flat cluster; and small, perfect ones, to reproduce the species, in June or July. As the flies and small pollen-collecting bees move rapidly over a corymb to feast on the layer of nectar freely exposed for their benefit, they usually cross-fertilize the flowers; for, as Muller pointed out, the anthers and stigmas of each come in contact with different parts of the insect's feet or tongue. Beetles, which visit the clusters in great numbers, often prove destructive visitors. Kerner claims that nectar is secreted in the leaves of this species, whether in the two glands that appear at the top of the petioles or not, he does not say. Of what possible advantage to the plant could such an arrangement be? Plants, as well as humans, are not in business for philanthropy.
No garden is complete - was garden ever complete? - without the beautiful SNOWBALL BUSH, a sterile variety of this shrub, with whose abundant balls of white flowers everyone is familiar. When various members of the viburnum and the hydrangea tribes are cultivated, the corollas of both the small interior flowers and those in the showy exterior circle become largely developed, while the reproductive organs of the former gradually become abortive. The snowball bush rather overdoes its advertising business; for however attractive its round white masses of sterile bloom, the effect is of no advantage to itself.
In light, dry, rocky woods, from North Carolina and Minnesota, far northward, grows the common MAPLE-LEAVED ARROW-WOOD or DOCKMACKIE (V. acerifolium), which one might easily mistake for a maple sapling when it is not in flower or fruit. All the blossoms in its slender peduncled, flat-topped, white clusters are perfect; none are sterile for advertising purposes merely, as in the cases of so many of its relatives. The five stamens protrude from each five-lobed little flower for plain reasons. The opposite leaves are broadly ovate, three-ribbed, three-lobed, coarsely toothed, acute at the tip, and, except for their soft hairiness underneath, are too like maple leaves to be mistaken. In autumn, when they take on rich tints, and the clusters of "berries" become first crimson, then nearly black, the shrub is a delight to see.
To become familiar with one of the Viburnum bushes is to recognize any member of the tribe when in blossom or fruit, for all spread more or less flattened, compound cymes of white flowers in late spring or early summer, followed by red or very dark "berries" (drupes); but it is on the leaves that we depend to name a species. The opposite, slender petioled,