WINTER GRIST FOR THE BIRDS 



February 2d 



^ 



WEED has been described by Emerson 

 as " a plant whose virtues have not been 

 discovered," and it must be confessed that 

 many of them fail to show any good reason for 

 their existence until the secret is disclosed in 

 their dried and brown skeletons against the 

 snow. There is the pretty ragweed, for instance 

 * (Ambrosia), figured on page 44. Who has ever 

 said anything good of it? Its copious pollen is 

 accused of being the provoking cause of hay-fever. Even 

 Burroughs, who certainly might have been expected to 

 discover some redeeming trait in the weed, only heaps 

 ignominy upon it. "Ambrosia, ' food for the gods,' "he 

 says. " It must be the food of the gods if of anything, 

 for, as far as I have observed, nothing terrestrial eats it, 

 not even a billy-goat." 



It is certainly delightful food for the eye, with its 

 finely-cut, graceful summer foliage and long tapering 



