64 SHARP EVES 



sleeve, as we have brought away its flowers from the 

 woods, while we left its rarest and most important 

 bloom behind us. 



For the little polygala found out long ago that some 

 means must be adopted to keep its foothold in the 

 woods, so many were the eager hands that culled it ev- 

 ery year. And so it formed a little plan to anchor itself 

 in its home beyond the reach of bouquet hunters, offer- 

 ing one posy for the boutonniere, and another for moth- 

 er earth one playful flower for the world, another for 

 serious use and posterity. But for this cunning resource 

 I fear our pretty fringed polygala would have been ex- 

 terminated in many of its haunts. Let us lose no time 

 to seek the purple broods in the woods, and gracefully 

 acknowledge our humility. These pale, pouch-like un- 

 derground flowers are not beautiful to look at, but they 

 plant the mould with seeds every year, and thus per* 

 petuate the purple beds of bloom. 



