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 bf 

 the mitre-wort (Mitella diphylla). My pn 

 phetic soul was not always thus explicit and 5 

 fallible, however. Other novelties I saw, abouo 

 which I could make no such happy impromptu 

 guess. And here the manual afforded little 

 assistance ; for it has not yet been found prac- 



