A GLANCE AT BRITISH WILD FLOWERS 171 



high, was quite new to me. Nearly all the related 

 species, the various docks, are naturalized upon our 

 shores. 



On the whole the place to see European weeds 

 is in America. They run riot here. They are like 

 boys out of school, leaping all bounds. They have 

 the freedom of the whole broad land, and are allowed 

 to take possession in a way that would astonish a 

 British farmer. The Scotch thistle is much rarer 

 in Scotland than in New York or Massachusetts. 

 I saw only one mullein by the roadside, and that 

 was in Wales, though it flourishes here and there 

 throughout the island. The London correspondent, 

 already quoted, says of the mullein: "One will 

 come up in solitary glory, but, though it bears hun- 

 dreds of flowers, many years will elapse before 

 another is seen in the same neighborhood. We 

 used to say, ' There is a mullein coming up in such 

 a place, ' much as if we had seen a comet ; and its 

 flannel-like leaves and the growth of its spike were 

 duly watched and reported on day by day." I did 

 not catch a glimpse of blue-weed, Bouncing Bet, 

 elecampane, live-for-ever, bladder campion, and oth- 

 ers, of Avhich I see acres at home, though all these 

 weeds do grow there. They hunt the weeds mer- 

 cilessly; they have no room for them. You see 

 men and boys, women and girls, in the meadows and 

 pastures cutting them out. A species of wild mus- 

 tard infests the best grain lands in June; when in 

 bloom it gives to the oat-fields a fresh canary yel- 

 low. Then men and boys walk carefully through 



