246 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



will find climbing over the roadside thickets. This 

 is the one that Whittier's barefoot boy could find for 

 us as easily as a botanist ; he knew better than any- 

 one else 



Where the groundnut trails its vine. 



It bears from three to seven ovate lance-shaped 

 leaflets, and rich clusters of beanlike blossoms, dull 

 purple-brown in color, and somewhat violet-scented ; 

 they bloom in late summer and through September. 

 The groundnut is quite common in low ground 

 through the North, from Maine to Minnesota. I 

 have drawn with the vine a bit of Whittier's coun- 

 try ; a glimpse of the beautiful Merrimac Eiver not 

 far from Newburyport, Mass. 



Among our blue wild flowers there are none pret- 

 tier than the gentians which appear in the autumn 

 months. The fringed gentian (Gentiana crinita) is 

 the most beautiful of the species, although I do not 

 consider its color as striking as that of some of 

 the other less handsomely formed gentians. The 

 "fringed lids," as Bryant calls them, of this flower 

 constitute its essential point of beauty. 



The common closed gentian (Gentiana A.ndrew- 

 sii) is far more interesting in color if not in charac- 

 ter ; the blue is variable and is broken by plaits of 

 white where the corolla is folded together. The 

 flower is perhaps one of the most puzzling and in- 



