44: BOULDER REVERIES. 



ten days and nights has also done much to pro- 

 mote that growth. Man cries out against the 

 heat of August days the maize delights in it. 

 During such a period myriads of heat calories 

 are caught up by the cells of the corn leaves 

 and stored in stem and grain for man's use in 

 those dim December and other winter days, 

 when the current of the earth's blood is sluggish 

 almost to stoppage. 



The berries of the pokeweed are in places 

 taking on that rich purple hue which betokens 

 their ripeness. In late autumn they will fur- 

 nish food for many a fruit-eating bird. The 

 Kentucky boy at work on this farm eats these 

 poke berries when afflicted with cramps in the 

 stomach, claiming that they are a certain cure. 

 The root of the plant is, however, said to be very 

 poisonous. When fully mature, the poke is one 

 of the handsomest of weeds, but it is too com- 

 mon for its beauty to be rightly appreciated. 

 The blood red of the stems and the purplish 

 black of the berries what typical colors of na- 

 ture ! One often finds the small, shining black 

 seeds beneath logs and stones, where they have 



