THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 195 



est shorter weeds of the roadside : these are robin's 

 plantain (Erigeron bellidifolius) and daisy fleabane 

 (Erigeron strigosus). The former looks like a blue 

 aster out of season ; it blooms in May and June 

 along moist banks and shaded byways. The latter 

 appears like a miniature aster, either perfectly white 

 or slightly tinged purple ; it blooms from early June 

 to late September. Both of these plants grow, at 

 most, not over twenty inches high. The sweet scabi- 

 ous (Erigeron annuus\ however, is a plant with a 

 more imposing presence. It is a tall weed, usually 

 three and sometimes five feet high, with a stout, 

 much-branched stem beset with little hairs, and nar- 

 row upper, but broader lower (coarsely toothed) leaves. 

 The white or purplish flowers have short rays and 

 broad, dull -yellow centers. This is a very common 

 weed in the waste places beside the road, and one 

 which I often find in company with the coarse bur- 

 dock. 



Next among our tall weeds (but these are not so 

 very tall) are the familiar white everlastings. Pearly 

 everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is quite the 

 handsomest species. It grows from one to two feet 

 high, and the stem is leafy to the top which expands 

 in a large, broad head of white flowers. The best 

 way to distinguish this species from the common 

 ones is to examine the little petals (really scales of 



