(Plate LXXX1I)

Family

Heath.

Colour

White.

Odour

Sweet, like honey.

Range

Florida to Mississippi and westward.

Time of Bloom

April, May.

Mowers: growing in terminal clusters. Calyx: five-parted; pubescent. Corolla: five-toothed; pubescent. Stamens: ten. Pistil: one. Leaves: alternate; ovate; pointed; sour. A tree fifteen to forty feet high.

It would be a very queer world indeed if we should ever lose our faith in the compensations of Dame Nature; and yet when we see the O. arboreum covered with its sprays of exquisite bloom, we cannot but wonder about those poor little shrubs that have cared so tenderly for their buds and are after all so very plain. Every good gift, it seems, has been showered upon this lovely tree. It has the sweet fragrance, the delicate beauty of the lily-of-the-valley; and combined as it is in masses, it gives all the strong effect of a bolder bloom.

The only difficulty is that one is tempted to sit down beside it and never go away.