OP FALL 



determination to assert its rights. Farther 

 west the plant takes on a different character, 

 and has something of the happy-go-lucky air 

 which is peculiar to our Western life. While 

 the Golden-rod of New England seems for the 

 most part to be a plant of wiry stalks and 

 rugged rather than robust growth, that of the 

 West grows to the height of a man's head and 

 has a rank luxuriance which makes it seem 

 quite unlike its New England relative. While 

 there is more of it in size there is really less of 

 it in beauty, in my way of looking at things. 

 The New England Golden-rod has quality, 

 which the Western Golden-rod strives to offset 

 by quantity, and on this account the latter is 

 less a favorite with the artist and the flower- 

 lover than that of the East. 



The Golden-rod is a plant which when it is 

 domesticated loses much of the charm with 

 which it is associated in its native haunts. It 

 will grow readily in the garden too readily, 

 indeed ; for give it a place there, in rich soil, and 

 it will speedily become as domineering and 

 aggressive as the English sparrow, which it re- 

 minds me of in many ways. It will take entire 

 possession of the place, crowding out every 

 plant it comes in contact with, and its prosper- 



115 



