96 BOULDER REVERIES. 



ily upon this portion of the common mother dur- 

 ing the June days of 1903. It takes those rays, 

 fierce and strong, to beget in the mother that 

 growth of grass and cereal which delights the 

 husbandmen that growth which, in time, fills 

 their mows and cribs to overflowing with the 

 produce of the mother earth. 



On the way hither I have plucked from the 

 crest of the ridge above me three June wild- 

 wood flowers. They grow mostly on the uplands 

 where the great oaks, maples and an occasional 

 mulberry and beech, rear their boles and spread 

 their branches. Each is common ; each is typical 

 of a leading family of flowering plants. One 

 is the open head of the field thistle, 23 the first 

 which I have seen this season, a representative 

 of the great family Oompositse. Armed below 

 with many a stiff spine and prickly involucral 

 scale, the purple head itself is more soft and 

 yielding than velvet. Of what a number of cy- 

 lindrical rays is it composed! How compactly 

 and prettily are they grouped ! What a soft and 

 delicate expanse they unfold to view! The 



**Carduus lanceolatus L, 



