274 



Old Time Gardens 



viewed with surprise and delight from the platform of 

 a train, returning from the Columbian Exposition ; 

 when I asked a friendly brakeman what the flower 

 was called, he answered " Vilets," as nearly all work- 



ingmen confi- 

 dently name 

 every blue 

 flower ; and he 

 sprang from the 

 train while the 

 locomotive was 

 swallowing 

 water, and 

 brought to me 

 a great armful 

 of blueness. I 

 am not wont 

 to like new 

 flowers as well 

 as my child- 

 hood's friends, 

 but I found 

 this new friend, 

 the Viper's Bu- 

 gloss, a very 

 welcome and 

 pleasing ac- 

 quaintance. Curious, too, it is, with the red anthers 

 exserted beyond the bright blue corolla, giving the 

 field, when the wind blew across it, a new aspect 

 and tint, something like a red and blue changeable 

 silk. The Viper's Bugloss seems to have the perva- 



Viper's Bugloss. 



