AN interlude: some garden weeds 



opportunities"* — and herein lies the only speck 

 of morality in weeds. When you are fighting 

 them, if you let them get the best of you they 

 are a giant rabble, or a low-down, back-breaking, 

 pestiferous crew. They even tell tales, for by 

 their growth they tell the experienced eye what 

 sort of discipline — or care — the garden has had. 



POISON IVY 



(Poison ivy, poison vine, poison creeper, mercury or markry and 

 three leaved ivy, usually climbing or trailing but sometimes erect 

 in growth.) 



Teach the children it has three leaflets while the wood- 

 bine or Virginia creeper, for 

 which it is often mistaken, has 

 five. The ivy has masses of 

 white berries standing out al- 

 most straight from its stem; 

 the woodbine has smaller clus- 

 ters of deep purple berries 

 that droop. Birds spread the 

 ivy seeds so that it may ap- 

 pear in the school garden in 

 sections where it is common 

 in fields and pastures or along 

 the roadside. Poison ivy is 

 harmless to many. Toothers 

 it is a rank poison because of 

 the non-volatile oil found in 

 all parts of the plant even 

 when seemingly dead. Consequently, it ought never 



Poison Ivy 



♦ Burroughs. John: A Year in the Fields, p. 158. 

 215 



