ESCAPED FROM GARDENS 71 



trails its yellow coins over the orchard ground into 

 cleared brush -land, and vies with other running 

 weeds in further treading down the discouraged 

 grass on the thin -soiled pastures. Summer is the 

 flowering time of the great number of garden waifs, 

 and through July and August a dozen kinds are 

 locally plentiful enough to count in landscape color. 

 Close under fences, sometimes following their 

 line, at others gathering in great patches, grows a 

 little plant, never more than a foot in height, with 

 dark, bristling green leaves 

 and flat yellow flower-tops. 

 At a short distance it might 

 easily be mistaken for a dwarf 

 Goldenrod out of season, 

 though a near view shows 

 the florets to be of the odd, 

 turbaned shape that marks it 

 as a Spurge. This Cypress 

 Spurge is one of a tribe which 

 has a somewhat evil reputa- 

 tation, for one member of the family 

 is dangerous to handle, and this 

 pretty flowering variety is poisonous 

 to eat. Though quite conspicuous 

 when in flower, the Spurge is an 



