1892.] ESSAYS. 151 



the pogonia, onr sweetest orchid, may be numbered in thousands. 

 Here skirted by a growth of young alders, is a quagmire from 

 which peat was once taken. Greenbrier and nightshade bind 

 the brush into an impenetrable thicket, and the scarlet berries of 

 the latter are reflected in the waters, among the leaves of 

 sparganium and its blooming lieads of white. In open woods, 

 grow foxglove, oxalis, lousewort and brunella. Among the 

 pines, pyrola, moneses, wintergreen, Indian pipe, and mitchella ; 

 in the pasture, pennyroyal, polygala, cinquefoil and ladies' 

 tresses ; in the sheltered rockery, columbine, saxifrage, blood- 

 root, and thalictrum. 



And so one might go on, to weariness, writing down catalogues 

 of names. But when we have thus classified plants according to 

 locality and habitat, we perceive that we have but looked upon 

 them from one side. One lesson may be derived, however, from 

 such a list. If, in putting down the names, we give place to 

 those only, for which we have some real affection, we shall 

 unconsciously omit a number of such plants as chenopodium, 

 ox-eye daisy, purslane, chickweed, yellow dock, and sheep sorrel, 

 weeds with such vigorous constitutions that they can survive, 

 when those which were their predecessors have gone to the wall. 

 For, strangely, a large share of them are foreigners, intro- 

 duced into our land from across the waters, where perhaps, 

 during centuries of cultivation, they have developed their bane, 

 ful characters. Always the overpowering race comes from the 

 east, if we except the potato beetle and Clodea Canadensis, which, 

 if common report may be relied upon, are creating in England, 

 at least, a proper regard for American institutions and methods. 

 Besides the water weed, others of our plants which represent us 

 abroad are the yellow wood-sorrel, and more remarkable yet, Clay- 

 tonia Yirginiana, each of which has become an agricultural pest 

 over large portions of England. Then also, several species of 

 mimulus, the naiad, ladies' tresses, and the blue Bermuda grass- 

 lily have gained a footing, but live among their cousins in peace, 

 much in the same way as English bind-weed, bladder-campion 

 and celandine live with us. 



Upon quiet waters in late summer may be seen myriads of our 

 smallest flowering plant, lemna — the larger and smaller duck- 



