The JMusic of the Marsh 



seem as if ice-chilled, each hank fringed with water 

 cress. 



The masses of flowers are made up of golden- 

 rod, aster, ironweed, Joe Pye-weed, milkweed, 

 swamp laurel, cardinal flower, turtlehead, and 

 daisies peeping Mherever they can reach the light. 

 There are cone flowers, swamp sunflowers, every- 

 thing you know, and others the books fail to name, 

 among the vines and mosses especially; and all of 

 abnormal growth from the rich muck, warmth, and 

 the abundance of water. 



Although it is not so easy to attack the swamp 

 as the forest, on all sides man is pressing close. 

 Big ditches are being dredged, leading from the 

 marshes lying highest on the face of earth to lower 

 bodies of rimning water, so that the marsh le^'el is 

 reduced by several feet, giving an unbelievable 

 amount of sjiace that soon dries for cultivation. 

 I know of homes being l)uilt so close the marsh 

 that water rises in your footsteps between rows of 

 cultivated vegetables. Everywhere the marsh is 

 driven back, and as it recedes men hurry in ^\"it]i 

 garden truck first, and grain later. 



The character of wild growth changes as mois- 

 tiu-e is removed. jNIullein and thistle take the place 

 of flowers of damper habit. Because they are s 

 tall, so delicate, and of such clear, excjuisite blue, 

 marsh lilies (Cainassia fraseri) are conspicuous 

 above any. They grow Mhere it is slightly high 



331 



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