120 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



without a local name ! Because it grows before the vil- 

 lagers' doors, instead of in a swamp a mile or two away, 

 it is a nameless weed! Had it been rare and required 

 sharp eyes to detect, the choicest spot of all the garden 

 would be reserved for it. 



Whether the world has learned the fact or not, there is 

 no golden bloom more beautiful than this. The slender, 

 almost thread-like branches, bearing dusty, gray-green 

 leaves, shape themselves into stars, circles, and rudely 

 crumpled mats, while over all is showered triply polished 

 gold, so thickly often that the plant itself is hidden, and 

 there rests upon the glittering sand a fragment of the sun. 



Wherever the Hudsonia was found, near by were curi- 

 ous vine-like tangles with pretty foliage, often a rich deep 

 purple, more frequently a delicate shade of green. This 

 plant, unlike the preceding, derives its beauty from the 

 snow-white background and from the rich coloring of the 

 stems and leaves there being no noticeable bloom. A 

 weed, too, is this in the minds of the villagers, having no 

 name, but known elsewhere as "false ipecac," which is 

 little better than no name at all. This fact, however, car- 

 ries no influence to the mind of the rambler. Not a way- 

 side growth at home, it troubled me nothing to learn that 

 others ignored it. Wandering for my own pleasure, it 

 stood the test of relative merit so far as I was concerned ; 

 for it never failed to attract and command my attention, 

 even when within sight of more pretentious growths. 



Beneath the pines a forest of which came within a 

 stone's throw of the village the sand was not covered 

 with vegetation, beyond patches of reindeer moss and the 

 yearly crop of " needles " shed by the trees, and which 

 appear never to decay. They pleasingly reflect the sun- 

 light that is sifted through the pines' interlocking 

 branches, and fill the long vista with a tinted atmosphere 

 in which every object stands forth with startling distinct- 



