158 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



beeches have been stripped from these " breaks" 

 to satisfy the man of mammon, and only under- 

 brush and trees of second growth now meet the 

 eye. The chat rejoices in the change, for coverts 

 many has it now in which to hide its scolding 

 form. The Kentucky warbler, 57 and its more 

 modest garbed cousin the "worm eater" 58 here 

 too find summer homes well suited to their lik- 

 ing, as does also the whippoorwill and towhee. 

 When on such July days as these the hot air, 

 moisture laden, full of humidity, doth surge and 

 beat, these valleys and ravines often seem to me 

 but grottoes of inferno, with little to attract, 

 not even squirrels and marmots. 



In damp places along the lower edges of these 

 shaded ravines grows the zigzag spiderwort, 59 

 its lilac-blue flowers opening for but a single 

 morn, wasting their beauty on the birds and 

 butterflies, then closing once for all. In this 

 form the upper portion of the stem is flexuous 

 or bent in zigzag fashion and its handsome blos- 

 soms are in three to seven sessile umbels or clus- 

 ters in the axils of the bract-like upper leaves. 

 A taller, smoother form, 80 with straight stems 

 and much larger deep blue flowers also fre- 

 quently occurs along the roadsides and railways 

 of this region. 



57 Geothlypisformosa Wilson. K Helmitkerus vermivorus Gmel. 

 59 Tradescantia pilosa Lehm. w Tradescantia virginiana L. 



