WHITE 



may the Butter-burre or Colte's-foote be reckoned for grasses as 

 also all other plants whatsoever." But if it covered Parnassus 

 with its delicate veiny blossoms as abundantly as it does some 

 moist New England meadows each autumn, the ancients may 

 have reasoned that a plant almost as common as grass must some- 

 how partake of its nature. The slender -stemmed, creamy flow- 

 ers are never seen to better advantage than when disputing with 

 the fringed gentian the possession of some luxurious swamp. 



PEARLY EVERLASTING. 



Anaphilis margaritacea. Composite Family (p. 13). 



Stem. Erect, one or two feet high, leafy. Leaves. Broadly linear to 

 lance-shaped. Flower-heads. Composed entirely of tubular flowers with 

 very numerous pearly white involucral scales. 



This species is common throughout our Northern woods and 

 pastures, blossoming in August. Thoreau writes of it in Sep- 

 tember : " The pearly everlasting is an interesting white at pres- 

 ent. Though the stems and leaves are still green, it is 4 rv an d 

 unwithering like an artificial flower ; its white, flexuous stem and 

 branches, too, like wire wound with cotton. Neither is there 

 any scent to betray it. Its amaranthine quality is instead of 

 high color. Its very brown centre now affects me as a fresh and 

 original color. It monopolizes small circles in the midst of 

 sweet fern, perchance, on a dry hill-side." 



FRAGRANT LIFE-EVERLASTING. 



Gnaphalium polycephahim. Composite Family (p. 13). 



Stem. Erect, one to three feet high, woolly. Leaves. Lance-shaped. 

 Flower-heads. Yellowish-white, clustered at the summit of the branches, 

 composed of many tubular flowers. 



This is the "fragrant life-everlasting," as Thoreau calls 

 it, of late summer. It abounds in rocky pastures and through- 

 out the somewhat open woods. 



NOTE. Flowers so faintly tinged with color as to give a white effect in 

 the mass or at a distance are placed in the White section : greenish or green- 

 ish-white flowers are also found here. The Moth Mullein (p. 152) and 

 Bouncing Bet (p. 196) are found frequently bearing white flowers : indeed, 

 white varieties of flowers which are usually colored, need never surprise one. 



112 



