THE QUEST OF THE BLUE DANDELION 



[Note : The following anonymous essay appeared in the 

 Atlantic Monthly for December, 1922. It was from the 

 wliinisical pen of t( Miner Senator Roger Sherman Hoar, late 

 of Concord, Massachusetts, and ni»w of South Milwaukee, 

 Wisconsin. It is the article referred to by Mr. Norman Jcf- 

 feries in onr number for August, 1923. Since this essay ap- 

 peared matters have UKned swiftly with Senator Hoar's dan-" 

 delions as he will relate in our next number in a secjuel enti- 

 tled "More Blue Dandelions."] 



First, let me state that tliere really are such things as 

 blue dandelions. It came to pass in the following manner: 



In the summer of 1913, a certain country gentleman. 

 iixin.q; in a certain Massachusetts town, and actuated l)y the 

 commendable New England urge to buy everything that 'jined' 

 him, purchased an adjoining estate, which happened to be a 

 nursery garden. Instead of merely ploughing under such 

 plants as he did not need for his own garden, he very public- 

 spiritedly threw the grounds open to his friends and neigh- 

 bors, to take what they chose ; and I, inter alios, availed my- 

 self of the opportunity. 



Among the items which I took was one peculiar small 

 plant willi lilv-like leaves. There were no others like it in 

 the garden, and it could not be identified by any of the bot- 

 anists to whom I showed it. 



Transplanted into my own garden, it received the most 

 tender daily care, in spite of which (or, perhaps, because of 

 which) it very nearly perished. Finally it bore a single flower, 

 large and blue, closely resembling that of an aster. In due 



