A BUNCH OF HERBS 



the woods, usually on high, dry ground, and will 

 look in vain for it elsewhere. It does not go in herds 

 like the commoner plants, but affects privacy and 

 solitude. When I come upon it in my walks, I seem 

 to be intruding upon some very private and exclu- 

 sive company. The large yellow cypripedium has a 

 peculiar, heavy, oily odor. 



In like manner one learns where to look for ar- 

 butus, for pipsissewa, for the early orchis; they 

 have their particular haunts, and their surroundings 

 are nearly always the same. The yellow pond-lily 

 is found in every sluggish strea'm and pond, but 

 Nymphcea odorata requires a nicer adjustment of 

 conditions, and consequently is more restricted in 

 its range. If the mullein were fragrant, or toad- 

 flax, or the daisy, or blue-weed, or goldenrod, they 

 would doubtless be far less troublesome to the agri- 

 culturist. There are, of course, exceptions to the 

 rule I have here indicated, but it holds in most 

 cases. Genius is a specialty : it does not grow in 

 every soil ; it skips the many and touches the few; 

 and the gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace 

 like genius or like beauty, and never becomes com- 

 mon or cheap. 



" Do honey and fragrance always go together in 

 the flowers ? " Not uniformly. Of the list of fra- 

 grant wild flowers I have given, the only ones that 

 the bees procure nectar from, so far as I have ob- 

 served, are arbutus, dicentra, sugar maple, locust, 

 211 



