WHITE 



Awakes these forest nuns ; yet, night and day, 



Their heads are bent, as if in prayerful mood. 

 A touch will mar their snow, and tempests rude 

 Defile ; but in the mist fresh blossoms stray 



From spirit-gardens, just beyond our ken. 



Each year we seek their virgin haunts, to look 

 Upon new loveliness, and watch again 



Their shy devotions near the singing brook ; 



Then, mingling in the dizzy stir of men, 



Forget the vows made in that cloistered nook." * 



The effect of a cluster of these nodding, wax-like flowers ii 

 the deep woods of summer is singularly fairy-like. They spring 

 from a ball of matted rootlets, and are parasitic, drawing their 

 nourishment from decaying vegetable matter. In fruit the plant 

 erects itself and loses its striking resemblance to a pipe. Its 

 clammy touch, and its disposition to decompose and turn black 

 when handled, has earned it the name of corpse-plant. It was 

 used by the Indians as an eye-lotion, and is still believed by 

 some to possess healing properties. 



MAYWEED. CHAMOMILE. 



Anthemis Cotula. Composite Family. 



Stem. Branching. Leaves. Finely dissected. Flower- heads. Com- 

 posed of white ray and* yellow disk-flowers, resembling the common white 

 daisy. 



In midsummer the pretty daisy -like blossoms of this strong- 

 scented plant are massed along the roadsides. So nearly a 

 counterpart of the common daisy do they appear that they are 

 constantly mistaken for that flower. The smaller heads, with 

 the yellow disk-flowers crowded upon a receptable which is much 

 more conical than that of the daisy, and the finely dissected, 

 feathery leaves, serve to identify the Mayweed. The country- 

 folk brew " chamomile tea" from these leaves, and through 

 their agency raise painfully effective blisters in an emergency. 



* Mary Thacher Higginson. 

 63 



