224 A BUNCH OF HERBS. 



field by elecampane, or by teasle, or milkweed; 

 whole acres given up to whiteweed, golden-rod, wild 

 carrots, or the ox-eye daisy ; meadows overrun with 

 bear-weed ( V. viride), and sheep pastures nearly 

 ruined by St. John's-wort or the Canada thistle. Our 

 farms are so large and our husbandry so loose that 

 we do not mind these things. By and by we shall 

 clean them out. When Sir Joseph Hooker landed 

 in New England a few years ago, he was surprised 

 to find how the European plants nourished there. He 

 found the wild chiccory growing far more luxuriantly 

 than he had ever seen it elsewhere, " forming a tan- 

 gled mass of stems and branches, studded with tor- 

 quoise-blue blossoms, and covering acres of ground." 

 This is one of the many weeds that Emerson binds 

 into a bouquet, in his " Humble-Bee " : 



" Succory to match the sky, 

 Columbine with horn of honey, 

 Scented fern and agrimony, 

 Clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue, 

 And brier-roses, dwelt among." 



A less accurate poet than Emerson would probably 

 have let his reader infer that the bumble-bee gathered 

 honey from all these plants, but Emerson is careful 

 *o say only that she dwelt among them. Succory is 

 t ne of Virgil's weeds also, 



"And spreading succ'ry chokes the rising field." 



Is there not something in our soil and climate 

 exceptionally favorable to weeds something harsh, 

 nngenial, sharp-toothed, that is akin to them ? Ho* 



