The Blue Flower Border 275 



sive power of many another blue and purple flower, 

 Lupine, Iris, Innocence, Grape Hyacinth, Vervain, 

 Aster, Spiked Loosestrife ; it has become in many 

 states a tiresome weed. On the Esopus Creek 

 (which runs into the Hudson River) and adown the 

 Hudson, acre after acre of meadow and field by the 

 waterside are vivid with its changeable hues, and 

 the New York farmers' fields are overrun by the 

 newcomer. 



I have seen the Viper's Bugloss often since that 

 day on the railroad train, now that I know it, and 

 think of it. Thoreau noted the fact that in a large 

 sense we find only what we look for. And he de- 

 fined well our powers of perception when he said that 

 many an object will not be seen, even when it comes 

 within the range of our visual ray, because it does 

 not come within the range of our intellectual ray. 



Last spring, having to spend a tiresome day riding 

 the length of Long Island, I beguiled the hours by 

 taking with me Thoreau's Summer to compare his 

 notes of blossomings with those we passed. It was 

 June 5, and I read: 



"The Lupine is now in its glory. It is the more im- 

 portant because it occurs in such extensive patches, even an 

 acre or more together. ... It paints a whole hillside with 

 its blue, making such a field, if not a meadow, as Proser- 

 pine might have wandered in. Its leaf was made to be 

 covered with dewdrops. I am quite excited by this pros- 

 pect of blue flowers in clumps, with narrow intervals ; such 

 a profusion of the heavenly, the Elysian color, as if these 

 were the Elysian Fields. That is the value of the Lupine. 

 The earth is blued with it. . . . You may have passed 



