A BUNCH OF HERBS 199 



from one end of the earth to the other, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker relates this circumstance: "On one occa- 

 sion," he says, "landing on a small uninhabited 

 island nearly at the Antipodes, the first evidence 

 I met with of its having been previously visited by 

 man was the English chickweed; and this I traced 

 to a mound that marked the grave of a British 

 sailor, and that was covered with the plant, doubt- 

 less the offspring of seed that had adhered to the 

 spade or mattock with which the grave had been 

 dug." 



Ours is a weedy country because it is a roomy 

 country. Weeds love a wide margin, and they find 

 it here. You shall see more weeds in one day's 

 travel in this country than in a week's journey in 

 Europe. Our culture of the soil is not so close and 

 thorough, our occupancy not so entire and exclu- 

 sive. The weeds take up with the farmers' leav- 

 ings, and find good fare. One may see a large slice 

 taken from a field by elecampane, or by teasle or 

 milkweed; whole acres given up to whiteweed, 

 goldenrod, wild carrots, or the ox-eye daisy; 

 meadows overrun with bear-weed, and sheep pas- 

 tures nearly ruined by St. John's-wort or the Can- 

 ada thistle. Our farms are so large and our hus- 

 bandry 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 flourished there. He found the wild chicory 

 growing far more luxuriantly than he had ever seen 



