84 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



* 



the August sunshine the golden yellow rays of the 

 bur-marigold. Acre upon acre 'of them nodded to 

 me from afar, while at my feet, on the roadside, their 

 western cousin, the fetid marigold, made known its 

 presence, not so much by its rays, which are few and 

 small, as by its disagreeable odor which is its most 

 significant sign. 



Down into the field of marigolds I took my way, 

 desiring to meet them face to face and learn what they 

 had to say of the summer's haps and mishaps. As 

 seen from the brow of the hill all appeared to be mari- 

 golds, but when among them much of the yellow was 

 found to be due to another handsome Composites with 

 a homely name, the sneeze-weed. The land on which 

 they grow was formerly cultivated but of late years 

 has been overflowed in spring, the water standing on 

 the ground each season until June. The owner, 

 therefore, has turned the land over to these wild 

 plants, and how they revel in their freedom ! What 

 a struggle among them for existence now that man's 

 hand is not among their enemies! Two species of 

 marigolds, one devoid of ray flowers, the other with 

 the showy golden-yellow rays; two of smartweed, 

 one cocklebur, the sneeze-weed, and the fog-fruit, the 

 last a handsome creeping member of the Verbena 

 family all growing in this damp rich soil in such 

 luxuriance as to literally hide the surface of the earth 

 from view. Which will be successful at the close of 

 the struggle ? Which, in five, ten, or fifty years, will 

 be master of the soil? Perchance a stranger from 

 some western plain or from one of Europe's vales will 

 then have come and by its properties of prolificness 



