A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



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 it 

 elsewhere, "forming a tangled mass of stems 

 and branches, studded with turquoise-blue 

 blossoms, and covering acres of ground." 

 This is one of the many weeds that Emer- 

 son 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 

 bumblebee gathered honey from all these 

 plants, but Emerson is careful to say only 

 that she dwelt among them. Succory is 

 one 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, ungenial, sharp-toothed, 

 144 



