PEPACTON 



and the live-forever, which thrives and multiplies 

 under the plow and harrow. In my section an an- 

 noying weed is abutilon, or velvet-leaf, also called 

 " old maid," which has fallen from the grace of the 

 garden and followed the plow afield. It will man- 

 age to mature its seeds if not allowed to start till 

 midsummer. 



Of beautiful weeds quite a long list might be 

 made without including any of the so-called wild 

 flowers. A favorite of mine is the little moth mul- 

 lein that blooms along the highway, and about the 

 fields, and maybe upon the edge of the lawn, from 

 midsummer till frost comes. In winter its slender 

 stalk rises above the snow, bearing its round seed- 

 pods on its pin-like stems, and is pleasing even 

 then. Its flowers are yellow or white, large, wheel- 

 shaped, and are borne vertically with filaments 

 loaded with little tufts of violet wool. The plant 

 has none of the coarse, hairy character of the com- 

 mon mullein. Our cone-flower, which one of our 

 poets has called the "brown-eyed daisy," has a 

 pleasing effect when in vast numbers they invade 

 a meadow (if it is not your meadow), their dark 

 brown centres or disks and their golden rays show- 

 ing conspicuously. 



Bidens, two-teeth, or "pitchforks," as the boys 

 call them, are welcomed by the eye when in late 

 summer they make the swamps and wet, waste 

 places yellow with their blossoms. 

 228 



