204 PEPACTON 



made lamp-wicks of its dried leaves, and the Ro- 

 mans dipped its dried stalk in tallow for funeral 

 torches. It affects dry uplands in this country, 

 and, as it takes two years to mature, it is not a 

 troublesome weed in cultivated crops. The first 

 year it sits low upon the ground in its coarse flan- 

 nel leaves, and makes ready; if the plow comes 

 along now, its career is ended. The second season 

 it starts upward its tall stalk, which in late summer 

 is thickly set with small yellow flowers, and in fall 

 is charged with myriads of fine black seeds. " As 

 full as a dry mullein stalk of seeds" is almost 

 equivalent to saying, "as numerous as the sands 

 upon the seashore." 



Perhaps the most notable thing about the weeds 

 that have come to us from the Old World, when 

 compared with our native species, is their persist- 

 ence, not to say pugnacity. They fight for the soil; 

 they plant colonies here and there and will not be 

 rooted out. Our native weeds are for the most 

 part shy and harmless, and retreat before cultiva- 

 tion, but the European outlaws follow man like 

 vermin; they hang to his coat-skirts, his sheep 

 transport them in their wool, his cow and horse in 

 tail and mane. As I have before said, it is as with 

 the rats and mice. The American rat is in the 

 woods and is rarely seen even by woodmen, and the 

 native mouse barely hovers upon the outskirts of 

 civilization; while the Old World species defy our 

 traps and our poison, and have usurped the land. 

 So with the weeds. Take the thistle for instance: 



