128 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



If it belongs to the rank of floral infants, 

 it is at least one of those big, healthy, com- 

 posed infants that are born at an advanced 

 age and are advising their elders at five. 

 What is of moment, it blooms and flour- 

 ishes in the wild corner of our yard. 



Rather opposed to the trillium, with its 

 choiceness and aristocracy, is the mustard. 

 This cheap and frequent plebeian riots in 

 the mean places of the town the empty 

 lots, the littered street sides. Just as the 

 summer had opened I found a black mus- 

 tard (why black ? for the Brassica nigra 

 has n't a bit of black about it) that had 

 sported, as the florists say, producing white 

 instead of yellow blossoms. Undeterred 

 by recent failures with wild clover, some 

 ferns, and some violets, I transplanted the 

 weed to the yard. Sharp differences of soil 

 no doubt kill these things, where breaking 

 of the roots may not, and when the mustard 

 collapsed I supposed it was done for ; but 

 in a week or two it put out buds, though it 

 did not straighten from its wilted attitude 

 for a month, and after a little it flowered 

 copiously. It is surprising what a number 



