AMONG THE WILD-FLOWEKS 29 



the names; the words seemed to be full of 

 meaning to her, though she had never heard 

 them before in her life. It was what she 

 wanted: it was an introduction to the flowers, 

 and her interest in them increased at once. 



"That orange-colored flower which you just 

 plucked from the edge of the water, that is our 

 jewel-weed," I said. 



"It looks like a jewel," she replied. 



"You have nothing like it in England, or 

 did not have till lately ; but I hear it is now 

 appearing along certain English streams, having 

 been brought from this country. " 



"And what is this?" she inquired, holding 

 up a blue flower with a very bristly leaf and 



stalk. 



"That is viper' s-bugloss or blucAveed, a plant 

 from your side of the water, one that is making 

 itself thoroughly at home along the Hudson 

 and in the valleys of some of its tributaries 

 among the Catskills. It is a rough, hardy 

 weed, but its flower, with its long, conspicuous 

 purple stamens and blue corolla, as you see, is 



very pretty." 



"Here is another emigrant from across the 

 Atlantic," I said, holding up a cluster of small 

 white flowers, each mounted upon a little 

 inflated brown bag or balloon, — the bladder- 

 campion. "It also runs riot in some of our 

 fields as I am sure you will not see it at home. " 

 She went on filling her hands with flowers, and 

 I gave her the names of each, — sweet clover 

 or melilotus, probably a native plant, vervain 



