JOE PYE-WEED 265 



I have not written yet about Boneset and Mil- 

 foil, although we have been noticing them for a 

 long time. They are both a little weedy looking, 

 and their flowers are white. Some people think 

 they look alike, but this could hardly be after they 

 have had on what Grandmother calls their thinlc- 

 ing-cap. 



Boneset usually grows larger than Milfoil, and 

 has bunches of tiny white flowers all in the shape 

 of tubes. But it is by the leaves that any one can 

 learn to know Boneset. They are long and narrow 

 and taper down to a point. Then they grow oppo- 

 site to each other on the stem, and close around it 

 so tightly that it is hard for me to believe they are 

 not just one leaf with the stem pushing through. 

 These leaves, besides, look as though they were 

 all little patches. They are not smooth and shiny 

 like most other leaves, and when Boneset grows by 

 the roadside where they get dusty I have thought 

 them very ugly. 



Although Tommy doesn't think that the Indian 

 doctor, Joe Pye, knew much about Boneset, there 

 were other Indians who found out it could cure the 

 kind of colds and fevers that make the bones ache 

 so hard they feel like breaking, and that this is why 

 Boneset was chosen for Its name. Grandmother 

 says, though, that most old-fashioned people used 

 to call It Ague-weed. 



When Grandmother was a little girl and had a 

 cold, she drank tea made from Boneset leaves. 



