JULY. 245 



heads: a field of timothy, or, as the people here call it, 

 " herd's grass/' has not the beautiful appearance which one 

 of Redtop ( Agrostis Vulgaris) has. 



F. Perhaps not, but it is more profitable; generally 

 producing a greater weight of nutritive matter to the acre ; 

 and this is a subject to which a farmer is much more alive 

 than their respective claims to beauty. Here is a fine 

 flower, which possesses far greater pretensions than either of 

 the grasses : it is vulgarly called Indian Wickup (Epilo- 

 bium Latifolium) ; its leaves are large and lanceolate, arid 

 its tall and elegant pyramidal spike of pink flowers, continu- 

 ing in blossom till late in autumn, would form no mean ob- 

 ject in a garden. Long before the upper buds are blown, 

 the lower flowers have yielded their place to long narrow 

 pods, having a partition down the centre, and bearing winged 

 seeds. This plant is common in Newfoundland; but not 

 in such abundance as here : with us it frequently covers 

 a large space of ground. The caterpillars of the Panther- 

 moth (Spilosoma Acria), Royal Tiger (Arctia Virgo), and 

 I believe of some other moths, feed on its leaves. Another 

 handsome flower, the Orange-lily (Lilium Canadense), is 

 now, and has been for some time, in bloom : the brilliant 

 colour and the graceful drooping of the bell-shaped corolla, 

 entitle it to our admiration. It grows commonly here, par- 

 ticularly in meadows near the river. 



C. Have you seen a thick-set bird, shaped like a spar- 

 row, hopping about, of a bright rust-colour, slightly mottled 

 with dusky brown ? I saw three or four of them a few days 

 ago on the ground, at the edge of the maple woods. 



F. I have not met with it here ; but I am very fami- 

 liar with the bird, as it is in Newfoundland one of the most 

 common species, It is the Fox-coloured Sparrow (Frin- 

 Rufa); in its manners fearless and familiar, resembling 



