22 AMONG THE AVILD-FLOWERS 



by its beauty; but it is interesting, because of 

 its many curious traits and habits. For in- 

 stance, it is dioecious, that is, the two sexes are 

 represented by separate plants; and what is 

 more curious, these plants are usually found 

 separated from each other in well defined 

 groups, like the men and women in an old- 

 fashioned country church, — always in groups ; 

 here a group of females, there a few yards 

 away, a group of males. The females may be 

 known by their more slender and graceful 

 appearance, and, as the season advances, by 

 their outstripping the males in growth. In- 

 deed, they become real amazons in comparison 

 with their brothers. The staminate or male 

 plants grow but a few inches high; the heads 

 are round, and have a more dusky or freckled 

 appearance than do the pistillate; and as soon 

 as they have shed their pollen their work is 

 done, they are of no further use, and by the 

 middle of May or before, their heads droop, 

 their stalks wither, and their general collapse 

 sets in. Then the other sex, or pistillate 

 plants, seem to have taken a new lease of life; 

 they Avax strong, they shoot up with the grow- 

 ing grass and keep their heads above it; they 

 are alert and active, they bend in the breeze; 

 their long, tapering flower-heads take on a tinge 

 of color, and life seems full of purpose and 

 enjoyment with them. I have discovered, too, 

 that they are real sun worshipers; that they 

 turn their faces to the east in the morning, and 

 follow the sun in his course across the sky til] 



