228 A BUNCH OF HERBS. 



Poke-weed is a native American, and what a lusty 

 royal plant it is ! It never invades cultivated fields 

 but hovers about the borders and looks over the 

 fences like a painted Indian sachem. Thoreau cov- 

 eted its strong purple stalk for a cane, and the robins 

 eat its dark crimson-juiced berries. 



It is commonly believed that the mullein is indig- 

 enous to this country, for have we not heard that i 

 is cultivated in European gardens, and christened the 

 American velvet plant? Yet it, too, seems to have 

 come over with the pilgrims, and is most abundant in 

 the older parts of the country. It abounds through- 

 out Europe and Asia, and had its economic uses with 

 the ancients. The Greeks made lamp wicks of its 

 dried leaves, and the Romans dipped its dried stalk 

 in tallow for funeral torches. It affects dry uplands 

 in this country, and, as it takes two years to mature, 

 it is not a troublesome weed in cultivated crops. 

 The first year it sits low upon the ground in its 

 coarse flannel leaves, and makes ready ; if the plow 

 romes along now its career is ended. The second 

 season it starts upward its tall stalk, which in late 

 summer is thickly set with small yellow flowers, and 

 in fall is charged with myriads of fine black seeds. 

 " As full as a dry mullein stalk of seeds " is almost 

 equivalent to saying, " as numerous as the sands upon 

 die sea-shore." 



Perhaps the most notable thing about the weeds that 

 have come to us from the Old World, when compared 

 with our native species, is their persistence, not to saj 



