A BUNCH OF HERBS 



that is akin to them ? How woody and 



rank and fibrous many varieties become, 



lasting the whole season, and standing up 



stark and stiif through the deep winter 



snows, — desiccated, preserved by our dry 



air ! Do nettles and thistles bite so sharply 



in any other country ? Let the farmer tell 



you how they bite of a dry midsummer day 



when he encounters them in his wheat or 



oat harvest. 



Yet it is a fact that all our more pernicious 

 weeds, like our vermin, are of Old World 

 origin. They hold up their heads and as- 

 sert themselves here, and take their fill of 

 riot and license ; they are avenged for their 

 long years of repression by the stern hand 

 of European agriculture. We have hardly 

 a weed we can call our own. I recall but 

 three that are at all noxious or troublesome, 

 namely, milkweed, ragweed, and goldenrod ; 

 but who would miss the last from our fields 

 and highways ? 



" Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold 

 That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought, 

 Heavy with sunshine droops the goldenrod," 



sings Whittier. In Europe our goldenrod 

 IS cultivated in the flower gardens, as well 

 It may be. The native species is found 



145 



