EARLY AUGUST 



tive plant whose chief charm, perhaps, lies in its 

 foliage and coloring, as its flowers, although 

 pretty, are rather small and inconspicuous. 



Parts of the meadow are bright with the ob- 

 long, clover-like heads of the milkwort. These Milkwort 

 seem to deepen in color from day to day till 

 finally they look almost red. They are closely 

 related to the lovely fringed polygala of the June 

 woods, and to the little moss-like species with nar- 

 row leaves growing in circles about its stem, and 

 thick flower-heads of purplish-pink, which can be 

 found along the inner borders of this same marsh. 



There is a hollow in the meadow which is al- 

 ways too wet to be explored comfortably without 

 rubber-boots, and which becomes at high tide a 

 salt-water pond. Its edges are guarded by ranks 

 of tall swamp mallows, whose great rose-colored Swamp 

 flowers flutter like banners in the breeze. Close ma 

 by are thickets turned pinkish-purple by the 

 dense flower-clusters of the largest and most 

 showy of the tick-trefoils, a group of plants which Tick- 

 are now in full bloom and which can be recognized ^ 

 by their three-divided leaves, pink or purple pea- 

 like flowers, and by the flat, roughened pods 

 which adhere to our clothes with regrettable 

 pertinacity. The botany assigns this species to 

 rich woods, but I have never seen it more abun- 

 dant than here, 



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