A WEED PICTURE. 



To one who cares little for natural ob- 

 jects a bit of bottom land in autumn has 

 few attractions, but to the botanist of ex- 

 perience or to a student of nature, from 

 late July till the first frost comes, such a 

 place is a continuous delight. 



Perhaps you have seen this very pic- 

 ture. If so. have you studied its details? 



A half acre of swamp, which in the 

 springtime presented a dainty back- 

 ground of yellowish green willows and a 

 foreground of green pasture dotted with 

 dandelions and blue violets, has now 

 transformed itself into a Persian effect 

 of gorgeous color. Blue, pink, brown, 

 green, red, purple, white, lavender, yel- 

 low, orange brown, and these through 

 tintings and shadings that a modern 

 Titian would never produce, even should 

 he wear his brush to a stub, for the very 

 simple reason that he couldn't. 



Plant life has here run riot and because 

 of their dense growth the varieties are al- 

 most unaccountable. 



Among the showier members of this 

 very mixed growing effect, in color, 

 brightest is purple iron weed and the 

 helianthus. 



But joe-pye weed tosses up his woolly 

 pink bead and flauntingly asks. "W^ith 

 that big yellow and black butterfly on my 

 crown am I not more showy than they?" 

 He has to be gently reminded that all his 

 brothers are not wearing butterfles. which 

 fact leads to a negative decision — still he 

 is a beautv. 



Then the corners festooned with clem- 



atis, hop bindweed and even dodder give 

 to the raw edges a finish that cannot be 

 excelled. Little dots of cardinal, here 

 and there, show a belated cardinal flower 

 and bitter sweet just ready to open hangs 

 over the elder bushes, which form one 

 edge of this picture. 



The paler asters in eight or ten shad- 

 ings, with the exception of the New Eng- 

 land variety, begin to fill in the neutral 

 patches, and golden rod is waving 

 yellow plumes here and there. It is 

 a beautiful color, but looks rather pale 

 compared to the later sunflowers. Bone- 

 set and yarrow and spurge each have 

 a place, and great bunches of bedstraw 

 fill up the crannies till not a square inch 

 of earth is visible. 



Some of the plants which help com- 

 plete the perfect whole but which are less 

 numerous and showy, are the tall dead 

 stalks of angelica, parsnips in seed, milk- 

 weed, ragweed, mallow, nettles, vervain, 

 blackberry, and wild rose with scarlet 

 bolls : and this flanked on another side 

 by the densest of willow and thorn. 



Some of the finishing touches to this 

 composite picture are the huge green 

 dragon flies, the brilliantly colored butter- 

 flies and moths, and the catbirds and l)ird 

 kindred which live in the heart of all this 

 magnificence, but manage to keep well 

 on the wing, especially when the sun 

 shines bright and the air is soft and cool, 

 and on days when a deep blue sky with 

 great white clouds is the canopy. 



Mary Xoi.axd. 



The air is full of hints of grief, 



Strange voices touched with pain — 

 The pathos of the falling leaf 



And rustling of the rain. 



—Thomas Bailey Aldrich. " Landscape. 



176 



