" ?MA. 



A BUNCH OF HERBS. 

 FRAGRANT WILD FLOWERS 



THE charge that was long ago made against our 

 wild flowers by English travelers in this country, 

 namely, that they were odorless, doubtless had its 

 origin in the fact, that, whereas in England the 

 sweet-scented flowers are among the most common 

 and conspicuous, in this country they are rather shy 

 and withdrawn, and consequently not such as trav- 

 elers would be likely to encounter. Moreover, the 

 British traveler, remembering the deliciously fragrant 

 blue violets he left at home, covering every grassy 

 slope and meadow -bank in spring, and the wild clem- 

 atis, or traveler's joy, overrunning hedges and old 

 walls with its white, sweet-scented blossoms ; and 

 finding the corresponding species here, equally abun- 

 dant, but entirely scentless, very naturally inferred 

 that our wild flowers were all deficient in this respect. 

 He would be confirmed in this opinion, when, on 

 turning to some of our most beautiful and striking 

 native flowers, like the laurel, the rhododendron, the 

 columbine, the inimitable fringed gentian, the burn- 

 ing cardinal-flower, or our asters and golden-rod. 

 14 



