i84 THE BROOK BOOK 



my eyes to get the magic out of them and looked 

 intently at the near-by shrubs. They were just 

 ordinary low dogwoods, poplars and ashes, but 

 they were overgrown with wild clematis ! Masses 

 of the bearded seeds still clung t6 the flower- 

 stalks. This explained the gray veil on the oppo- 

 site bank. I never supposed there was so much 

 of this adorable plant in the whole world ! I 

 wondered if I could ever find the place again, for 

 certainly the Artist would want to see it when I 

 told him of my discovery. I walked ovei* the path 

 two or three times to make sure of landmarks, and 

 even moved a stone and a fallen limb to a con- 

 spicuously unnatural position in the trunk of a 

 dead tree. 



While searching about for a stick to drive into 

 the ground at my boat landing, I found trailing 

 over the rich moist earth many hog-peanut vines. 

 I knew the plant by its hairy stems and triple leaf- 

 lets. Earlier in the summer when the purplish 

 blossoms attracted my notice, the Botanist had 

 shown me the underground flowers from which 

 the peanuts of this plant develop. "By this time 

 the crop must be ready for the harvest," I thought, 

 and fell to digging carefully, following a thread- 

 like stem which crept away under the leaf-mold. 

 My search was rewarded finally. There was the 

 peanut, a queer little pod containing but one seed. 

 The hog-peanut loves the moist shade and the 

 deep loose soil, and since there were no hogs 

 hereabout to root out these nuts the plant was 

 prosperous. 



