AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 9 



a crimson. I knew of no flower of such a complex- 

 ion frequenting such a place as that. On investiga- 

 tion, it proved to be a stranger. It had a rough, 

 hairy, leafless stem about a foot high, surmounted 

 by a corymbose cluster of flowers or flower-heads of 

 dark vivid orange- color. The leaves were deeply 

 notched and toothed, very bristly, and were pressed 

 flat to the ground. The whole plant was a veritable 

 Esau for hairs, and it seemed to lay hold upon the 

 ground as if it was not going to let go easily. And 

 what a fiery plume it had! The next day, in an- 

 other field a mile away, I chanced upon more of 

 the flowers. On making inquiry, I found that a 

 small patch or colony of the plants had appeared 

 that season, or first been noticed then, in a meadow 

 well known to me from boyhood. They had been 

 cut down with the grass in early July, and the first 

 week in August had shot up and bloomed again. I 

 found the spot aflame with them. Their leaves 

 ^ covered every inch of the surface where they stood, 

 and not a spear of grass grew there. They were tak- 

 ing slow but complete possession ; they were devour- 

 ing the meadow by inches. The plant seemed to be 

 a species of hieracium, or hawkweed, or some closely 

 allied species of the composite family, but I could 

 not find it mentioned in our botanies. 



A few days later, on the edge of an adjoining 

 county ten miles distant, I found, probably, its head- 

 quarters. It had appeared there a few years be- 

 fore, and was thought to have escaped from some 

 farmer's door-yard. Patches of it were appearing 



