NEW GLEANINGS IN OLD FIELDS 



page he who runs may read. In summer it is 

 print on a green or brown or gray page. The little 

 waifs from the woods that come to my door day 

 after day in winter, so active and cheery and brave- 

 hearted, heroic little figures that ask no favors 

 of me or any one, yet who complacently help them- 

 selves to the proffered suet and nuts, and go their 

 way like a merry gypsy band, they little know 

 that they are my benefactors as much as I am 

 theirs. 



VI. AN INTERESTING PLANT 



In our walks we note the most showy and beau- 

 tiful flowers, but not always the most interesting. 

 Who, for instance, pauses to consider that early 

 species of everlasting, called in the botany Anten- 

 naria, that grows nearly everywhere by the roadside 

 and about poor fields? It begins to be noticeable in 

 May, its whitish downy appearance, its groups of 

 slender stalks crowned with a corymb of paperlike 

 buds, contrasting with the fresh green of surround- 

 ing grass or weeds. It is a member of a very large 

 family, the Composite, and does not attract one 

 by its beauty, but it is interesting because of its 

 many curious traits and habits. For instance, it is 

 dioecious, that is the two sexes are represented by 

 separate plants; and what is more curious, these 

 plants are usually found separated from each other 

 in well-defined groups, like the men and women in 

 44 



