A MEADOW MUD-HOLE. ^5 



it accords well with the unpretending valley of 

 the Delaware, is not a thing apart, but the cul- 

 mination, as it were, of Nature's vigor here, and 

 seemingly not out of place even when it fills a 

 meadow mud-hole. 



One species is, as we have seen, truly Ameri- 

 can, native and to the manner born, even if in- 

 troduced and cared for by the Indian along our 

 Eastern seaboard ; but now, where the wildness 

 of the Indians' day has been long lost to us, and 

 novelty is sweet, we rejoice to find the lotus of 

 the East is no longer a stranger in the land. 



In a now nameless little stream, filling the 

 narrow interval between low hills, till within a 

 few years there grew little but the yellow dock, 

 white arrow-leaf, blue pickerel-weed, and here 

 and there a lily. It was simply a typical muddy 

 brook, such as is found everywhere in the 

 " drift " areas of the State. Every plant was 

 commonplace ; but far be it from me to infer 

 that any one was mean or meritless. Not a 

 flower named but is really beautiful; yet, save 

 the lily, none would be gathered for nosegays. 

 Why, as is so common, speak disparagingly of the 

 yellow nuphar, our familiar splatter-dock ? Let 

 it be gathered with care, with no fleck of tide- 

 borne mud upon its petals, and see how rich the 

 coloring, and with what grace the flower has 

 been molded. I doubt not, were the nuphar 



