AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 29 



" That orange-colored flower which you just 

 plucked from the edge of the water, — that is our 

 jewel- weed," I said. 



" It looks like a jewel," she replied. 



" You have nothing like it in England, or did 

 not have till lately; but I hear it is now appearing 

 along certain English streams, having been brought 

 from this country." 



" And what is this ? " she inquired, holding up a 

 blue flower with a very bristly leaf and stalk. 



" That is viper's bugloss, or blue-weed, a plant 

 from your side of the water, one that is making 

 itself thoroughly at home along the Hudson, and 

 in the valleys of some of its tributaries among the 

 Catskills. It is a rough, hardy weed, but its flower, 

 with its long, conspicuous purple stamens and blue 

 corolla, as you see, is very pretty." 



" Here is another emigrant from across the At- 

 lantic," I said, holding up a cluster of small white 

 flowers, each mounted upon a little inflated brown 

 bag or balloon, — the bladder campion. " It also 

 runs riot in some of our fields, as I am sure you will 

 not see it at home." She went on filling her hands 

 with flowers, and I gave her the names of each, 

 — sweet clover or melilotus, a foreign plant; ver- 

 vain (foreign) ; purple loosestrife (foreign) ; toad-flax 

 (foreign) ; chelone, or turtle-head, a native ; and the 

 purple mimulus, or monkey-flower, also a native. 

 It was a likely place for the cardinal-flower, but I 

 could not find any. I wanted this hearty English 

 girl to see one of our native wild flowers so intense 



