AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 21 



has a singularly fresh and tender aspect. Its foliage 

 is of a slightly purple tinge, and of very delicate 

 texture. Not the least interesting feature about 

 the plant is the concealed fertile flower which it 

 bears on a subterranean shoot, keeping, as it were, 

 one flower for beauty and one for use. 



ii 



In our walks we note the most showy and beauti- 

 ful flowers, but not always the most interesting. 

 Who, for instance, pauses to consider that early 

 species of everlasting, commonly called mouse-ear, 

 that grows nearly everywhere by the roadside or 

 about poor fields'? It begins to be noticeable in 

 May, its whitish downy appearance, its groups of 

 slender stalks crowned with a corymb of paper-like 

 buds, constrasting it with the fresh green of sur- 

 rounding grass or weeds. It is a member of a very 

 large family, the Composite, and does not attract 

 one by its beauty; but it is interesting because of 

 its many curious traits and habits. For instance, 

 it is dioecious, that is, the two sexes are represented 

 by separate plants ; and, what is more curious, these 

 plants are usually found separated from each other 

 in well-defined groups, like the men and women 

 in an old-fashioned country church, always in 

 groups; here a group of females, there, a few yards 

 away, a group of males. The females may be known 

 by their more slender and graceful appearance, and, 

 as the season advances, by their outstripping the 

 males in growth. Indeed, they become real ama- 



