194 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



commonest weed by the roadside becomes one of the 

 most beautiful tilings in the world when the strength 

 of its color is portrayed on the impressionist's can- 

 vas. We may look at it skeptically, but the artist 

 reveals a real not an imagined beauty, which all of 

 us have eyes to see quite as well as he. 



If the general color effect of Joe-Pye weed is 

 attractive, the delicate beauty of white snakeroot 

 (Eupatorium ageratoides) is greater. 

 This beautiful weed grows beside 

 nearly every woodland road in 

 the North. The flowers are 

 dainty copies of the soft, wool- 

 ly blossoms of the ageratum 

 in our gardens ; the leaves are 

 ovate-pointed, long-stemmed, 

 and coarse-toothed. The 

 whole character of the 

 plant is smooth, 

 not hairy, and its 

 slenderer stems 



White Snakeroot. 



grow from three 



to four feet high. It is one of the refined members 



of the Eupatoriwn family group. 



Passing the multitudinous golden-rods and asters, 

 to the most important of which I have devoted a 

 chapter further on, we come to two of the common- 



