My Boyhood and Touth 



and shaped exactly like Indian moccasins. 

 They caught the eye of all the European 

 settlers and made them gaze and wonder like 

 children. And so did calopogon, pogonia, spir- 

 anthes, and many other fine plant people that 

 lived in our meadow. The beautiful Turk's- 

 turban (Lilium superbum) growing on stream- 

 banks was rare in our neighborhood, but the 

 orange lily grew in abundance on dry ground 

 beneath the bur-oaks and often brought Aunt 

 Ray's lily-bed in Scotland to mind. The 

 butterfly-weed, with its brilliant scarlet flow- 

 ers, attracted flocks of butterflies and made fine 

 masses of color. With autumn came a glorious 

 abundance and variety of asters, those beauti- 

 ful plant stars, together with goldenrods, sun- 

 flowers, daisies, and liatris of different species, 

 while around the shady margin of the meadow 

 many ferns in beds and vaselike groups spread 

 their beautiful fronds, especially the osmundas 

 {0. claytoniana, regalis, and cinnamomed) and 

 the sensitive and ostrich ferns. 

 Early in summer we feasted on strawberries, 



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