236 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



When we first arrived in Pasadena we 

 noticed a tall trunk the size of a young 

 sapling-, base somewhat ragged. No 

 leaves but two or three feet at its top sur- 

 rounded with little stems bearing what 

 looked from below like upright clusters 



CENTURY PLANTS TWELVE YEARS OLD 



of dried dates. Could this be a date 

 palm? Inquiry brought no inform- 

 ation. Later, when we saw the 

 tall flower stalk in its prime of 

 blossom, surrounded bv its basal crown 

 of spik^ leaves as tall as ourselves or 

 taller — some of them six or seven feet, we 

 knew that this was the far-famed century 

 plant. ( )ur first glimpse had been after 

 the blossom had died and the leaves 

 dropped off when the trunk is not good 

 for timber or even firewood but, having 

 a sponge-like heart, is cut off in sections 

 and sold to tourists for century pin- 

 cushions. 



"When I lived in lowy," said the same 



pious gardener, "I used to wish I could 

 see one of them century plants in blos- 

 som, but I s'posed I never could without 

 I lived to be a hundred. Now them 

 plants there is twelve years old. They're 

 ahout done flowerin' so the leaves fall 

 off and they die. Ain't that the way 

 with us? When our work's done the 

 good Lord takes us home." 



A WOBD FOR WEEDS. 



BY DR. W. WHITMAN BAILEY, BROWN UNI- 

 VERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



It has ever been a vexed question how 

 to define a weed. Best friends have 

 quarreled over it. It is like the mistress 

 among admiring lovers. Each adores 

 her equally, but because neither can per- 

 fectly describe her charms in the terms 

 of the other, they resort in their dis- 

 agreement to personal abuse. Arbitra- 

 tion can no more settle the dispute than 

 it can many disputes that arise among 

 the nations — and which the dreamer ig- 

 nores. Lexicons disagree; the persons 

 most familiar with cognate facts find 

 themselves at variance. 



Let us consider some of the variations 

 and accepted definitions. A weed is a 

 herbaceous plant growing out of place. 

 This at once implies that if it were in 

 place its weedy character would be lost. 

 Such, in fact, is the case. Take the 

 "white-weed daisy" or "ox-eye" and cul- 

 tivate it as a garden flower or pluck it 

 in the fields even for a bouquet and it is 

 beautiful. Out of place ; viz., in grass 

 fields or meadows, it is, from its abun- 

 dance and aggressiveness, a weed — one 

 of the very worst prevailing over some 

 parts of the Union. It is only excelled, 

 if indeed surpassed at all, by the omni- 

 present wild carrot which is not always 

 useless, is perennially beautiful, yet un- 

 deniably a weed. Rudbeckia, "black- 

 eved Susan" or cone-flower again is a 

 weed when it intrudes by the thousand 

 on a meadow or hayfield, but a joy for 

 Persephone when it clothes a whole land- 

 scape with richest gold. 



Some weeds are well limited by the 

 dictionary definition, "useless plants," 

 yet we can all think of examples styled 

 weeds that are not strictly useless. We 

 mav, if heroic and so minded, forswear 



