SEED TRAMPS I 5 I 



It is to this class of restless vagabonds that I would 

 now direct attention, and what a precious lot of tramps 

 they are ! Foreign immigrants almost without excep- 

 tion, by hook and by crook, by fair means and foul, 

 they have travelled from the ends of the earth, until 

 now they are always and forever with us, lording it 

 over every copse and wood. Do we seek our garden 

 for a quiet evening stroll, they present their unwelcome 

 compliments. Do we stoop to drink at the way-side 

 water-trough, they thrust their cards upon us, and not 

 content with a mere recognition, even plaster us with a 

 whole pack of them. 



But the woods are their stronghold. There they 

 have us at their mercy lay in wait for us, hedge us 

 about, and intimidate us, until we return from our walk 

 in helpless chagrin, decorated with their advertising tags 

 from head to foot, champions against our will of their 

 whole shady fraternity. What a representative rogues' 

 gallery do we often bring home with us on our nether 

 costume or even upon our coat -sleeve! Sly brigands, 

 whose presence in the woods we had never suspected 

 did we not here see their unimpeachable cartes de~visite. 



We may know little enough of botany, scarcely 

 enough, perhaps, to serve us in giving a wide berth to 

 the poisonous plants that have often made us suffer; but 

 there is at least one interesting botanical family whose 

 familiar forms we have been forced to study with pa- 

 tience the burrs and beggar- ticks, the stick-seeds, 

 Spanish- needles, and " pitchforks." We know them all, 

 and recognize the same old persistent tokens from year 

 to year, yet how few of us catch them in the act of as- 

 sault ! 



One or two, like the group that flanks my highway 



