VII 

 A BUNCH OF HERBS 



FRAGRANT WILD FLOWERS 



r MHE charge that was long ago made against our 

 I wild flowers by English travelers in this coun- 

 try, namely, that they are odorless, doubtless had 

 its origin in the fact that, whereas in England the 

 sweet-scented flowers are among the most common 

 and conspicuous, in this country they are rather shy 

 and withdrawn, and consequently not such as trav- 

 elers would be likely to encounter. Moreover, the 

 British traveler, remembering the deliciously fra- 

 grant blue violets he left at home, covering every 

 grassy slope and meadow bank in spring,* and the 

 wild clematis, or traveler's joy, overrunning hedges 

 and old walls with its white, sweet-scented blos- 

 soms, and finding the corresponding species here 

 equally abundant but entirely scentless, very natu- 

 rally infers that our wild flowers are all deficient 

 in this respect. He would be confirmed in this 

 opinion when, on turning to some of our most beau- 

 tiful and striking native flowers, like the laurel, the 

 rhododendron, the columbine, the inimitable fringed 

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