at the tips; the upper side is
darker than the lower. While the fruit of the May-apple is edible, the
leaves and root are poisonous, not to the touch but to the taste. The
flower is a clear white with from eight to twelve rounding petals and it
generally measures about one and a half inches across. The petals expand
in the morning, become erect in the afternoon, and close at night. We
are told that the May-apple is a roadside plant, but I have found it
only in the woods.

=Wild Grapes=

There are several varieties of wild grapes, all, I think, edible but not
all pleasant to the taste. The fox-grape is sweet, but has a musky
flavor and odor, a thick skin, and a tough pulp. The fruit ripens in
September but few care to eat it. The vine grows luxuriantly and is very
common. The summer grape is another tough-skinned grape. It is not musky
but is generally astringent. The vine resembles the fox-grape in growth,
being strong and vigorous. The fruit of the blue grape is sour and hangs
in long, heavy clusters. It is usually found along water-ways.

[Illustration: MAY APPLE MANDRAKE

PARTRIDGE BERRY

Fruits common to most of the States.]

=Frost-Grape or Chicken-Grape=

If you try to eat the _frost-grapes_ before frost you will find them
decidedly sour, but after a good frost they are really fine. They have a
snappy, spicy flavor all their own, and one eats them, like currants,
skin and all. They are small, round, and black with a slight bloom. The
clusters are well-filled and hang loosely. The vine grows luxuriantly,
branching from a large trunk, and is found in wet places and on the
banks of streams, though it does well in the open and in drier soil. It
flourishes in New England and down to Illinois and westward to Nebraska.
The leaves usually suggest three lobes but are mostly undivided. They
are coarsely toothed and the under side bears occasional hairs along the
veins.

=Wild Nuts. Black Walnuts=

Of all the wild-growing foods, nuts are, perhaps, the most nutritious.
The _black walnut_, not plentiful in the Atlantic States but abundant in
the Middle States and in the Mississippi Valley, has a rich, wild
flavor, and a deep-brown stain for the hands that tear it from its
ball-like covering of tough, pimply green which forms the outer husk.
The nut is sometimes oblong, sometimes almost round, with a deeply
grooved, hard, brown shell. It grows in pairs or solitary. The tree is
large, often reaching the height