Some Humbugs of Science 131 



drink a pint of it for a cold, or measles, or 

 rheumatiz, thereby killing him and saving 

 him from ensuing doses of goldthread, 

 tansy, bloodroot, boneset, thoroughwort, and 

 other draughts that farmer lads remember 

 as bitter, blighting, burning, and abomi- 

 nable. I should not in the least wonder if 

 it were a poison. Birds and most insects 

 avoid it while growing, so it is one of the 

 few plants that look stoutly healthy all the 

 season. 



But despite its raggedness in the fall, 

 there are ragweeds here and there of agree- 

 able color : a purple bronze. Once in a 

 while a knot of these will have quite a dis- 

 tinction in a field, yet more often they are 

 happenings in a dull and unkempt average. 

 Why one ragweed should have this autumnal 

 privilege and the one beside it should wither 

 and turn brown I have no more idea than 

 I have why, of two maples on the same 

 knoll, one will redden quicker and deeper 

 than its mate. The first frost leaves its 

 scorch on ragweed as soon as on anything 

 in the ground, and an early effect of this 

 cold is the disappearance of its leaves, espe- 



