A GLANCE AT BRITISH WILD .FLOWERS. 187 



reddens many a poor worn-out field ; but the larger 

 species of sorrel, rumex acetosa, so common in Eng- 

 lish fields, and shooting up a stem two feet high, was 

 quite new to me. Nearly all the related species, the 

 various docks, are naturalized upon our shores. 



On the whole, the place to see European weeds is 

 in America. They run riot here. They are like 

 boys out of school, leaping all bounds. They have 

 the freedom of the whole broad land, and are allowed 

 to take possession in a way that would astonish a 

 British farmer. The Scotch thistle is much rarer in 

 Scotland than in New York or Massachusetts. I saw 

 only one mullein by the roadside, and that was in 

 Wales, though it flourishes here and there through- 

 out the island. The London correspondent, already 

 quoted, says of the mullein : " One will come up in 

 solitary glory, but, though it bears hundreds of flow- 

 ers, many years will elapse before another is seen in 

 the same neighborhood. We used to say, ' There is 

 a mullein coming up in such a place,' much as if we 

 had seen a comet ; and its flannel-like leaves and the 

 growth of its spike were duly watched and reported on 

 day by day." I did not catch a glimpse of blue-weed, 

 Bouncing Bet, elecampane, live-for-ever, bladder cam- 

 pion, and others, of which I see acres at home, though 

 all these weeds do grow there. They hunt the weeds 

 mercilessly ; they have no room for them. You see 

 men and boys, women and girls in the meadows and 

 pastures cutting them out. A species of wild mustard 

 infests the best grain lands in June ; when in bloom 



