FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 215 
and men alike carry themselves according to 
their birthright. Providence has not or- 
dained a diversity of gifts for nothing, and 
it is only a narrow philosophy that takes 
offense at seeming contrarieties. The truer 
method, and the happier as well, is to like 
each according to its kind: to love that which 
is amiable, to admire that which is admir- 
able, and to study that which is curious. 
A few weeks ago, for example, I walked 
again up the mountain road that climbs out 
of the Franconia Valley into the Franconia 
Notch. I had left home twenty-four hours 
before, fresh from working upon the asters 
and golden-rods (trying to straighten out my 
local catalogue in accordance with Dr. Gray’s 
more recent classification of these large and 
difficult genera), and naturally enough had 
asters and golden-rods still in my eye. The 
first mile or two afforded nothing of particu- 
lar note, but by and by I came to a cluster 
of the sturdy and peculiar Solidago squar- 
rosa, and was taking an admiring account 
of its appearance and manner of growth, 
when I caught sight of some lower blue 
flower underneath, which on a second glance 
proved to be the closed gentian. This grew 
