CHAPTER XII. 



THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS MEMBERS OF THE 

 COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



IN the warm days of August most of the singing 

 amid the treetops has ceased, and life has taken on 

 a different aspect for both bird and man. Every 

 winged dweller in wood and meadow finds food 

 in plenty, with never a hungry bill to fill beyond 

 his own. We listen to the grasshoppers' summer 

 symphony and count it a signal for relaxation, an 

 audible proof of the fact that the time has come 

 when it is too hot to do anything but keep quiet. 

 Nature, however, does not idle, nor does she slacken 

 her energy in time of heat ; the borders of the high- 

 way are the best evidence of this fact. At no time 

 of the year are the hedges and thickets so crowded 

 with luxuriant and rank vegetation, nor have we 

 seen until now such an aggregation of tall, striking 

 weeds. The margin of the highway in May was flat 

 and empty compared with its present aspect. Now, 

 on the edge of the meadow and at the side of the 



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