AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY. 253 
—having had a taste of its sting, — that it is 
good for food; there were great patches of it, 
as likewise of the pale touch-me-not (Impatiens 
pallida), which had been browsed over by 
them. It seemed to me that some of the ferns, 
the hay-scented for example, ought to have 
suited them better; but they passed these all 
by, as far as I could detect. About the edges 
of the woods, and in favorable positions well 
up the mountain-side, the flowering raspberry 
was flourishing; making no display of itself, 
but offering to any who should choose to turn 
aside and look at them a few blossoms such as, 
for beauty and fragrance, are worthy to be, as 
they really are, cousin to the rose. On one of 
my rambles I came upon some plants of a 
strangely slim and prim aspect; nothing but 
a straight, erect, military-looking, needle-like 
stalk, bearing a spike of pods at the top, and 
clasped at the middle by two small stemless 
leaves. By some occult means (perhaps their 
growing with Tiarella had something to do with 
the matter) I felt at once that these must be 
the mitre-wort (Mitella diphyila). My pro- 
phetic soul was not always thus explicit and in- 
fallible, however. Other novelties I saw, about 
which I could make no such happy impromptu 
guess. And here the manual afforded little 
assistance ; for it has not yet been found prac- 
