XIV. The Wayside Plants of Chautauqua 



The summer plants commonly found along our roadsides 

 are frequently thought of as weeds. A weed is a plant out 

 of place. These roadside plants belong to the roadside. 

 That strip of land is their home; from the fields and gardens 

 they have been expelled. How barren are the roadsides that 

 lack them! These are vigorous, sturdy, tough-fibered plants, 

 prolific and with many devices for wide dissemination. Road- 

 side plants afford many excellent studies in plant competition, 

 invasion, and successions. These plants should be studied not 

 only as individuals, but in masses they are gregarious, and 

 stand together. These plants have interesting pedigrees 

 like our own human population, they have come from many 

 lands; they have traveled all the seas. They exemplify many 

 of the human virtues fortitude, persistence, and the " fine 

 determination to win " in the struggle. 



Even in the cities, where " roadsides " in a botanical sense 

 do not exist, there are, here and there, patches of wild plant 

 life, vacant lots, strips of idle land, backyard areas. These 

 are populated, not only by " weeds," but often by many of the 

 " roadside " plants. These places, apparently uninviting, may 

 be made to yield much interesting nature-study material. 



The open grasslands are of two types or classes, first, 

 those that are mown or pastured; second, those that are cut 

 for hay (meadows) . In the mown or pastured fields all of the 

 plants save those that are noxious or thorny are kept cut down 

 close to the sod. Thus many flowering plants may exist in 

 the pasture or lawn, not as full sized normal plants, but as 

 cropped, stunted, or prostrate, creeping or rosette form, flow- 

 ering and fruiting as quickly as possible. In striking contrast 

 to these repressed plants are the meadowland flowers, that 

 grow up unhindered with the growing grass and assume their 

 full form. Many flowers of the field are true invaders, that 



50 



