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, pale leaves of the ARROW-WOOD or MEALY-TREE (V.dentalum), have no lobes; but are ovate, coarsely toothed, pointed at the tip, prominently pinnately veined.All the flowers in a cyme are perfect; and the drupes, which are at first blue, become nearly black when fully ripe.In moist, or even wet, ground, from the Georgia mountains, western New York, and Minnesota far northward, this smooth, slender, gray shrub is found.Its wood once furnished the Indians with arrows.
A much lower growing, but similar, bush, the DOWNY-LEAVEDARROW-WOOD (V.pubescens), formerly counted a mere variety of the preceding, may be known by the velvety down on the under side of its leaves.It grows in rocky, wooded places, often on some high bank above a stream.Beetles and the less specialized bees visit the flat-topped flower clusters abundantly in May.Short-tongued visitors quickly lick up the abundant nectar secreted at the base of each little style, cross-fertilizing their entertainers as they journey across the cyme.So widely do the anthers diverge, that pollen must often drop on the stigma of a neighboring floret, and quite as often a flower is likely to be self-fertilized through the curvature of the filaments.
The WITHE-ROD OR APPALACHIAN TEA (V.cassinoides; V.nudum of Gray) is found in swamps and wet ground from North Carolina and Minnesota northward, flowering in May or June.Its dense clusters of perfect, small white flowers, on a rather short peduncle, are followed by oval "berries" that, although pink at first, soon turn a dark blue, with a bloom like the huckleberry's.The opposite, oval to oblong, rather thick, smooth leaves and the somewhat scurfy twigs help the novice to name this common shrub, whose tough, pliable branches make excellent binders for farmer's bundles, but whose leaves cannot be recommended as a substitute for tea.
Beautiful enough for any gentleman's lawn is the SWEET VIBURNUM, NANNY-BERRY, SHEEP-BERRY, or NANNY-BUSH, as it is variously called (V.Lentago).Indeed, its name appears in many nurserymen's catalogues.From Georgia, Indiana, and Missouri far northward it grows in rich, moist soil, sometimes attaining the height of a tree, more frequently that of a good-sized shrub.Aprofusion of dense white, broad flower clusters, seated among the rich green terminal leaves in May, indicate a feast for migrating birds and hungry beasts, including the omnivorous small boy in October, when the bluish-black, bloom-covered, sweet, edible "berries" ripen.A peculiarity of the ovate, long-tapering, and finely saw-edged leaves is that their long petioles often broaden out and become wavy margined.