122 PROFESSOR BONN'S LETTER 



" The Milkweed which you found is shy and 

 fragile. It grows in stony woods, and never in 

 great company. A few of them are gay together, 

 and sometimes one might tramp a good half day 

 without finding them at all. 



" You saw how daintily it lifts itself above the 

 green things about ? Yet it never grows very tall, 

 perhaps not more than two or three feet. No 

 doubt you were charmed by the purplish pink of 

 its blossoms. They make me think of the inside 

 color of seaside shells. Then you were pleased 

 with its leaves, since they are so long and pointed, 

 and group themselves around the middle of the 

 stem in little companies of four. In fact, my 

 dear Philip, you were looking at the one of the 

 family which we old and sedate botanists call 

 Four-leaved Silkweed, even though, as you and I 

 have already decided, it is a Milkweed. 



" Look at the small flowers forming the bunches, 

 for they are fashioned in the same way as those 

 of each member of this great family. Knowing 

 one well you have but to say when you meet an- 

 other: ' Ah, here is a Milkweed friend. It Is not 

 the woodland sylph, no, nor the roadside plebeian. 

 There is then some particular thing for me to 

 notice, either in the color of the blossom, the way 

 Its leaves grow on the stem, its roughness or 

 smoothness, or Its either having or lacking a milk- 

 white sap.' 



" Each Milkweed flower, my dear Philip, Is 



