90 THE PLANT WORLD. 



M 



INCIDENTS AFIELD. 



By C. F. MiLLSPAUGH. 



R. Nelson's article in the jNlarch issue of "The Plant World" 

 recalls many curious incidents connected with the vasciilum 

 and the press that have happened to me in my botanical 

 rambles; and to the point of his argument 1 might add that I have per- 

 sonally attracted no deeper interest among the mountaineers of the 

 Virginias than among the residents of a New' York city of twenty- 

 seven thousand inhabitants. 



Many times a day, during a wagon tour of AVest Virginia, both 

 my entomological companion and myself were accosted with questions 

 that, l)y the end of the journey, would sufficiently fill a volume. Even 

 our horses learned before we were three days out, that they were 

 being driven by a curious pair of bipeds, and would turn and eye us 

 pityingly when, with a shout, one or both of us would leap from the 

 wagon, clear a fence, and rush madly afield. On each occasion the 

 team would stop the instant we dropped the lines, and watch us in- 

 tently until we regained the wagon; then, with a sad wag of the head, 

 they would walk meditatively on while we put away our prizes. 



On one particular occasion, as a long- bearded mountaineer ap- 

 proached on a lanky white horse, both happened to espy an oljject of 

 interest in the fields on either side of the road. With a yell of delight 

 the entomologist snatched his net. and clearini; the wa^on, and the 

 fence, in two leaps, rushed zig-zag down the hillside after an elusive 

 butterfly; at the same instant 1 reached for my })lant press and was over 

 the fence and scrambling up the bank above the road. The moun- 

 taineer's horse gave a snort, reared, and whirling on his pivoted hind 

 legs threw his astonished rider, and ran back down the road. Return- 

 ing, and not seeing the mountaineer about, we put away our trophies 

 of the chase and drove on. That night we "put up" at a house in 

 a little settlement on our route. As we breakfasted in the morninof 

 we everheard the following outside the kitchen door. 



"Do yeou-all know yeou-alTs got the durndest pair o' lunyticks in 

 yeou house outen jail? I met 'em on ther pike yestiddy, 'n' whatter 

 3^eou think: them too — w'en th' seed me a comin' — jess fetched er 

 whoop 'n' lit outen the'r waggin; wun er 'em grabbed er paytent gate 

 'n' slid up ther l)ank like er woodchuck makin' fer 's hole; 'n' tuther 

 went flyin' daoun ,Jim Skellen's hillside pastur a wavin' a white rag 



