BY THE WAYSIDE. 29 



The satisfaction may have sometime been ours, in young- 

 er days, of having made a clean job of it, but we have 

 come to see that a few of the buttercups that sway above 

 the grasses will do quite as well. If all are taken, the 

 next passer-by does not miss the color because he does 

 not know it existed there, but there is no glad surprise, 

 half the grace is gone and the spot is wanting in some of 

 the variety which was indigenous. 



By the Wayside. 



BY MARY-LKE VAN HOOK. 



One of our naturalists has said that women and children 

 make poor observers ; that they are seldom accurate, are 

 willing to leave a question unsolved or to jump at an un- 

 warrantable conclusion. He was right, no doubt, but 

 their joy in nature is true, though their science be at fault. 

 All nature lovers need not be nature students, though they 

 usually want to be ; it is quite possible to enjo}^ the song 

 of a bird or perfume of a flower without knowing the name 

 of either. 



Children always find the interesting plants, T think. 

 They know and taste the pungent toothwort, pepper grass 

 and shepherd's purse ; while the sassafras leaves and the 

 slippery elm have an unending charm. For my part, I am 

 like the children and am never satisfied until I have nib- 

 bled a new plant as a part of the examination ; a proceed- 

 ing perhaps not well to recommend to all. 



The yarrow has an odd taste. It is rather a pretty 

 plant, too, with its fern-like leaves and white blossoms, and 

 so common that every-one knows it. On a botanical trip 

 to the West we found the yarrow to be one of the most 

 wide spread of the plants. It seemed to grow under every 

 condition and in every kind of soil ; on the plains, in the 



