STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



and the brown song sparrows, may be seen eagerly feasting 

 on the dry seeds which still remain on the withered plants. 

 Later on, in May and June, the soft gray down of the hoary 

 leaves is used as lining for the nests of the humming-birds 

 and other small birds that weave dainty soft cradles for 

 the tiny families that need such tender care. Taught by 

 unerring wisdom, each mother-bird seeks its most suitable 

 material, and appropriates it for the use and comfort of its 

 unknown, unseen brood. Let us not despise the common 

 Mullein, for may it not remind us of Him who careth for 

 the birds of the air, and giveth them from His abundant 

 stores their meat in due season, and that wonderful unerring 

 wisdom that we call instinct. " Who least, hath some; who 

 most, hath never all." 



FALSE FOXGLOVE Gerardia quercifolia (Pursh). 



(PLATE XII.) 



I think old Gerarde, the first English writer on the wild 

 flowers and native plants of England (for whose memory 

 all botanists feel a sort of veneration), would have given a 

 far better description of the stately plant honored by his 

 name than the writer of this little work can hope to do, 

 seeing that the only native species that has come within 

 her knowledge is a slender purple-flowered Gerardia, G. 

 purpurea, which grows on the margin of Rice Lake, among 

 wild grasses and other herbage. 



It has been said by one who was a diligent botanist and 

 naturalist (the late Dr. G. G. Bird), that no Gerardias were 

 found north of the Great Lakes, but all were confined to the 

 Western and Eastern States; this, however, was a mistake. 

 At that date very little was known of the Canadian Flora. 

 It was the trying time of pioneer life in the backwoods, 

 when little heed was taken of the vegetable productions of 



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