I 18 FLOWERS OF THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



IN the sound of babbling brooks and singing birds, our 

 graceful climber lives out the shining months of its summer 

 life. It makes its home upon the shady banks and interlacing 

 \\ith the limbs of overarching trees, it curtains the bed of the 

 sleepless streamlet with its festoons of leaves and clustering 

 flowers. In such situations it may be looked for anywhere in the 

 United States east of the Mississippi. The genus, which was named 

 for Professor Joseph Mikan, of Prague, includes some sixty species 

 found mostly in the warmer parts of America, Asia, and Africa. 

 It belongs to the order Composite, described in the last paper, 

 though the heads of white and pink blossoms are unusually small, 

 containing but four flowerets each. Several of these small heads 

 are gathered into the flower-clusters represented in the plate. The 

 fact that this vine belongs to the same order with the Thistle 

 and Dandelion indicates the remarkable variety in the form and 

 habit of plants so closely related in their flowering as are the 

 members of this order. For we find in it not only such plants 

 as the Marigold and Aster, and this vine, but many woody shrubs 

 and several forest trees. 



The blossoms of the Hemp-Weed open in midsummer and 

 form a fine contrast with the bright-green, strongly-veined leaves. 

 I doubt not the foliage with its graceful outline and rich color 

 will form as attractive a part of the picture both in the book 

 and in nature, as the flowers themselves. Indeed, I think we 

 only need to have our attention called to the matter, to find more 

 and more that is peculiarly attractive and charming in the foliage 

 of plants. I can conceive of nothing in the plant world more 

 admirable than some Horse-Chestnut trees which I have seen, 

 the memory of which as a picture of great pleasantness will always 



