PLATE XII
BELLWORT.
The feathery clusters of the white baneberry may be gathered when we go to the woods for the columbine, the wild ginger, the Jack-in-the-pulpit, and Solomon’s seal. These flowers are very nearly contemporaneous and seek the same cool shaded nooks, all often being found within a few feet of one another.
The red baneberry, A. rubra, is a somewhat more Northern plant and usually blossoms a week or two earlier. Its cherry-red (occasionally white) berries on their slender stalks are easily distinguished from the white ones of A. alba, which look strikingly like the china eyes that small children occasionally manage to gouge from their dolls’ heads.
Mountain Holly.
Nemopanthes fascicularis. Holly Family.
A much branched shrub, with ash-gray bark. Leaves.—Alternate, oblong, smooth, on slender leaf-stalks. Flowers.—White, some perfect, others unisexual; solitary or clustered in the axils of the leaves on long, slender flower-stalks. Calyx.—Minute or obsolete. Corolla.—Of four or five spreading petals. Stamens.—Four or five. Pistil.—One. Fruit.—Coral-red, berry-like.
The flowers of this shrub appear in the damp woods of May. Its light red berries on their slender stalks are noticed in late summer when its near relation, the black alder or winterberry is also conspicuous. Its generic name signifies flower with a thread-like stalk.
Winterberry. Black Alder.
Ilex verticillata. Holly Family.
A shrub, common in low grounds. Leaves.—Oval or lance-shaped, pointed at apex and base, toothed. Flowers.—White; some perfect, others unisexual; clustered on very short flower-stalks in the axils of the leaves; appearing in May or June. Calyx.—Minute. Corolla.—Of four to six petals. Stamens.—Four to six. Pistil.—One. Fruit.—Coral-red, berry-like.
The year may draw nearly to its close without our attention being arrested by this shrub. But in September it is well nigh impossible to stroll through the country lanes without pausing to admire the bright red berries clustered so thickly among the leaves of the black alder. The American holly, I. opaca, is closely related to this shrub, whose generic name is the ancient Latin title for the holly-oak.
