THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 



193 



is perhaps the best-known member of this group, 



and we can always tell it by the way the stem 



seems to perforate the opposite - growing leaves 



which taper to a point. The 



flowers are dull white, small, 



and uninteresting. The plant 



grows from two to four feet 



high and has a coarse hairy 



stem. It is a bitter herb, 



whose medicinal properties 



we are well acquainted with, 



but one whose flowers we 



would never suspect the bee 



finds stored with honey; 



such is the case, however. 



Joe-Pye weed (Eupcuto- 

 rium purpureum) is an- 

 other tall relation with dull 



pinkish flowers. The leaves are very rough and 

 veiny, and the simple, stout stem grows from two 

 to twelve feet high. This is rather an aspiring 

 weed, which furnishes the lowland landscape in sum- 

 mer with the most consummately aesthetic pink tone 

 which it is possible to imagine. A good patch of 

 Joe-Pye weed under a hazy August sky produces one 

 of those delicious bits of cool pink, set in dull sage- 

 green, such as an impressionist likes to paint. The 

 14 



Bonesct. 



