Music of the Wild 



twist sensitive organs. So extremely thrifty is 

 this water member of the nasturtium family along 

 creeks and cold running w^ater that I know large 

 streams that are literally choked with cress, run- 

 ning through miles of unbroken marsh. The mu- 

 sic is threefold. There is water ten inches deep 

 whispering and gurgling around the stems, bees 

 visit the blossoms, and the human voice rings 

 loudly and clearly when a bed is discovered in early 

 spring; for this is just the tonic needed to thin 

 sluggish winter blood. The biting tang is craved 

 by the system, and a shout of joy greets the dis- 

 covery; so it, too, has a place in this music-book. 

 There is more human as well as bird and insect 

 music every time a lover of nature on his way to 

 silky the marsh finds a bed of Cornus amomum in 

 Cornel bi O om. It grows from two to six feet high, and 

 leaves densely before it flowers ; there is an especial 

 cluster around the blooms. These heads are made 

 from masses of fine white flowers, each having 

 four \vide-open petals, an exaggerated set of sta- 

 mens, and long pistil, so that the pollen, when ripe 

 and dusty, gives a golden tinge to the entire white 

 cluster. 



Quantities of this pollen must be used by tame 

 bees, or else there is a worldful, having the same 

 snappy, tart wild tang; for the bees of country 

 hives make honey that has precisely this flavor. 

 In the fall each flower cluster is represented by 

 340 



