Songs of the Fields 



shape as a heart is conventionalized, and so deeply 

 veined that their golden-green surfaces catch the 

 light in hills and hollows. Where the vine grows 

 in bright sunlight along the road these leaves are 

 so closely set they overlap like the scales on a fish. 

 Its bloom is insignificant, the male flowers droop- 

 ing clusters, the female spike-like heads. The seeds 

 are small triangles, and a number of them are 

 placed on a long stem. When these are dry and 

 shaken by winter winds they make as good music 

 as the hop tree. 



Another old snake fence corner pet of mine, 

 that flourishes in cultivation, and that is dignified 

 and an artistic plant, is wild saffron. It bears Wild 

 transplanting well, and if its location and soil are Saffron 

 at all congenial, in a few years it grows into a most 

 attractive bush. It reaches from three to four feet 

 in height, many shoots upspringing from the same 

 root. The stems are round, smooth, and even, with 

 a slight yellow tint to their green, that extends to 

 the leaves also. These are set at different places, 

 and point in all directions. They are very grace- 

 ful, as each is made up of twenty small leaves 

 set on a midrib. Approaching the top, the last 

 nine or ten have a small spray of bloom branch- 

 ing from their bases. 



These little bloom-sprays and the large crown 

 of the plant are masses of small individual yellow 

 flowers having five cuppy petals of unequal length, 

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