AN ISLAND GARDEN 35 



(Stramonium) is one of the most powerful and 

 persistent among the enemies ; a poisonous thing 

 with a loathsome odor, it must be watched for 

 and routed, which fortunately is easily done. In 

 its perfected growth this is the most uncanny 

 plant, a strong, low bush with bat-like leaves 

 of dark green, and long, pale lavender, lily-like 

 flowers, followed by a round spiked seed-vessel. 

 Says Hawthorne : " What hidden virtue is in 

 these things that it is granted to sow themselves 

 with the wind and to grapple the earth with this 

 immitigable stubbornness, and to flourish in spite 

 of obstacles, and never to suffer blight beneath 

 any sun or shade, but always to mock their ene- 

 mies with the same wicked luxuriance?" Mrs. 

 Gatty (the mother of that beautiful woman, 

 Juliana Horatia Ewing, who has so discoursed on 

 the subject of flowers and many other things as 

 to make all time her debtor) answers the ques- 

 tion, "What is a weed?" by this statement, "A 

 weed is a plant out of place." A keen and close 

 observer of nature says : " A better definition 

 would be, * A plant which has an innate disposi- 

 tion to get into the wrong place;'" and goes on 

 to say: "This is the very essence of weed charac- 

 ter in plants as in men. If you glance through 

 your botanical books you will see often added to 

 certain names, 'a troublesome weed.' It is not 

 its being venomous or ugly, but its being imper- 

 tinent thrusting itself where it has no business 

 and hinders other people's business that makes 

 a weed of it. ... Who ever saw a wood anemone 

 or a heath blossom out of place ? . . . What is it, 



