134 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



less soil at the back of the yard. It began 

 to brace up. Then I put it into better 

 earth, where it was shaded in the afternoon, 

 and it grew and became a respectable tree, 

 barring its lost branches. 



The golden-rod, too, is a determined 

 plant. When a stalk of it finds that it can- 

 not reach straight up to the sunshine, it 

 lies down and works along sidewise until 

 it is clear of obstruction, when it turns an 

 angle and stands up. It does other queer 

 things. I took off half of a tall stem ; this 

 amputation affected the half that was left 

 only in that it doubled its foliage, putting 

 out fresh leaves in the axils of the old. 

 Many plants make up for docking or in- 

 terference by a continuous or extra output 

 of leaves or flowers. Our hollyhock was 

 kept in bloom unusually long by picking 

 off the flowers as they went to seed. The 

 spike that bore the blossoms kept growing 

 longer as the lower flowers were cut away, 

 until it was perhaps seven and a half feet 

 high, and it kept blooming until frost. A 

 dahlia stripped to the stalks by caterpil- 

 lars recouped after a little, and at the end 

 of the season had a finer, glossier coat of 



