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lUuVUta I'Otula. Natural Order: Compositce — Aster Family. 



■' ^JJ^I'^RHAPS the commonest of all uncultivated plants is this 

 ,'{,/-_ \'^ idadside outcast, growing trom the deep-rutted soil, utterly 

 \A disregarding all the ordinarj- conditions required for herbal 

 ^ ^i:^ ^<fd perfection, it sports its numerous blossoms, and during the 

 ][p3^, .^3|' whole summer its flowers make white the borders of the 

 , dusty wa3^ It is an annual, though so abundant as to seem 

 ■^!^,iA/ '''.perennial, and only the greatest perseverance can eradicate it or 

 (t^f. reduce it to subjection. Of European origin, it was probably introduced 

 ""^^^ with grain. The flower is really pretty, combining the purest of yel- 

 NW^low, with the most opaque white, in an admirable and artistic manner, 

 and could it onl}' have been odorless and rare, would have been 

 received with ecstatic admiration, instead of contumely and contempt. 

 ^^The origin of the botanic name Maruta is obscure, and its meaning is 

 '^ quite uncertain. Cotula was the half-pint measure of the Greeks and 

 Romans. 



I^umoi 



R 



UMOR doth double like the voice and echo. 

 The numbers of the lear'd. —Shakesfea 





'T'HE flying rumors gather'd as they roll'd; 



Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told, 

 And all who told it added something new, 

 And all who heard it made enlargement too; 

 In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew. 

 —Pope. 



T FROM the Orient to the drooping West, 



Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold 

 The acts commenced on this ball of earth : 

 Upon my tongues continual slanders ride. 

 The which in every language I pronounce. 

 Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. 



A WHISPER woke the air — 

 ■'*■ A soft, light tone, and low. 



Yet barb'd with shame and woe, — 

 Now, might it only perish there! 



No farther go! —Mrs. Osgood. 



n UMOR is a pipe 



^^ Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, 



And of so easy and so plain a stop, 



Th.it the blunt monster with uncounted heads — 



The still discordant, wavering muititude — 



Can play upon it. 



■SJmlcesffi 



204 



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