Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/104

94 (T. and G.), and five other species. The amelanchier is often called "shad-bush" in the Eastern States, when the famous river-fish of spring have their period for ascending the streams, which time corresponds somewhat with the blossoming of the amelanchier. "June-berry" and "service-berry" are other names for this small tree, which, when in full bloom, is very attractive. The wild strawberry (Fragaria Virginiana, Ehrh.), a member of the same family (Rosaceæ) with the "June-berry," is recorded for the same day. The best of all strawberries, even in this age of a thousand cultivated varieties, were those gathered in youth upon the grassy hill-side. The flavor of the wild strawberry is nearly lost in many of the larger and more showy fruits of her highly pampered offspring. The toothwort, or dentaria (Dentaria laciniata, Muhl), and Draba Caroliniana (Walt.), or "whitlow-grass," come almost side by side in the manual as members of the Cruciferæ or mustard family. In the first we have an old friend of childhood days. Many an eager youth has burrowed his fingers deeply into the rich leaf-mold and earth, in search of the little potato-like root-stocks filled with a peppery and toothsome substance. The mustard-like flavor gets too strong as the root-stocks grow old, so that the luxury of gathering them in early spring is appreciated. Unlike its nearly related toothwort, the draba is a lover of sandy, waste places, where it, in its smallness and feeble growth, can have its own way. It does not enter into the sharp competition with other plants for the possession of the rich soil. Its strength and durability reside in its being content with poor fare.

The last but far from the least of the five flowering plants for April 20th was nothing less than the smooth lungwort (Mertensia Virginica, DC.). The bell-shaped flowers are of the choicest blue, a color that is both rare and beautiful in plants. It is no wonder that it has been transported from the moist banks of streams to adorn the flower-border in early spring, under the name of "blue-bells" or "Virginia cowslip," or, better still, "Mertensia," the generic name, taken from a German botanist, Mertens. The West has several of the mertensias, the most striking of which, to travelers in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas, is the Mertensia Siberica (Don.). It covers the borders of mountain-streams with a rank herbage three to five feet in height, bearing a profusion of bright, light-blue flowers. This giant of the dashing mountain-streams has its dwarf form (var. Drummondii, Gray) upon the far-away Arctic sea-shore.

April 21st finds the prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum Americanum, Mill), the small flowered buttercup (Ranunculus abortivus, L.), and the round-leaved gooseberry (Ribes rotundifolia, Michx.), in bloom. The prickly-ash, sometimes called "toothache-tree," is perhaps the nearest of kin of the orange, lemon, lime, and shaddock that grows in this flora. The aromatic bark and pungent leaves are a poor reflection of the very agreeable aroma that accompanies the fruit of the tropical