This section is from the book "A Guide To The Wild Flowers", by Alice Lounsberry. Also available from Amazon: A Guide to the Wild Flowers.
White.
Scentless.
New England southward and westward.
June.
Flowers: small, in a flat open cluster having no involucre. Calyx: of four minutely toothed sepals. Corolla: of four petals. Stamens: four. Pistil:
one. Fruit: a light blue berry. Leaves: opposite; oval, pointed; downy underneath. A shrub three to ten feet high, the branches streaked with white or green; warty.
Although rather faithful in its love of the woods, where it settles itself by the paths and roadways so as to nod to the passers by, this pretty shrub is not as discriminating as it might be in the matter of soil. To rich or poor, rocky or sandy, it appears to be alike indifferent. From its bark is extracted cornine, a powerful extract that is used for a tonic. It is similar to quinine.
 
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