148 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



me more than crimson clover. Of all the 

 flowers that brighten our woods and swamps 

 none seems to me more cheering from its 

 simple glow than the cardinal lobelia. 



THE CARDINAL, LOBELIA 



The swamps are the places where Nature 

 is most active in reclaiming the ground. 

 How gracious it is that she should cover 

 her processes of decay, that are blackening 

 and enrichening the slime beneath, with the 

 dainty carpet of ferns and mosses, and spot 

 the surface here and there with such perfect 

 patches of color as come from the graceful 

 clusters of the yellow-fringed orchid or from 

 the tall, glowing spikes of the cardinal 

 flower. 



The little blue lobelia of the fields, with 

 its inflated seed-pods, has long been used 

 in medicine. But to me the best adminis- 

 tration of lobelia is through the eye, and its 

 most potent effect is on the mind. 



One summer day on the mountains a 

 companion and myself had lost our bearings. 

 There was nothing to do but follow down 



