Music of the Wild 



able. Home means solid foundations, light, pure 

 air, congenial surroundings; and while the marsh 

 is the most beautiful place in the whole world in 

 summer; in early spring, late fall, and winter it is 

 bare and cheerless. In recompense for this, sum- 

 mer outdoes herself in a babel of music, masses of 

 glowing flower color, delicate mosses too fragile 

 to touch, and swaying vines festooned everywhere 

 they can find something to which to cling. 



One lovely swamp vine that I never have seen 

 used in decoration or conventionalized or in fact 

 Ground reproduced anywhere outside botanies, is the 

 Nut ground nut. Unfortunately for my study, the 

 only perfect vine I ever have found grew on that 

 thing I most detest, disfiguring the face of na- 

 ture a wire fence. This fence crossed a tract so 

 swampy, rails soon decayed, and wire was substi- 

 tuted. The location was on the banks of the Elk- 

 hart Ris r er, in a very marshy country. 



The vine springs from a pear-shaped tuber that 

 botanists pronounce edible. The leaves grow along 

 a stem, five to a group. The ground nut bloom 

 clusters slightly resemble wistaria, but in beauty 

 and exquisite perfume far exceed its loveliest 

 flowers. The bean-shaped blossoms are essentially 

 so wild, so of the swamps. They grow in a 

 short tassel, are of rich brown and maroon color, 

 and as clusters are turned in the light a change- 

 able shade of lilac shows strongly; and added to 

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