PEPACTON 



abundant in the older parts of the country. It 

 abounds throughout Europe and Asia, and had its 

 economic uses with the ancients. The Greeks made 

 lamp-wicks of its dried leaves, and the Romans 

 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 flannel leaves, and 

 makes ready ; if the plow comes along now, its 

 career is ended. The second season it starts up- 

 ward 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 say- 

 ing, " 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 cultivation, 

 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 

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