WILD FLOWERS BLUE AND PURPLE 
They are set in a green cup. The long, narrow and 
partly clasping leaf is hairy, and tapers toward the 
point. The midrib is prominent, and shows a lighter 
shade than the leaf. The margin is entire, and spar- 
ingly notched. They are arranged alternately, and so 
infrequent as to give the stem a generally naked appear- 
ance. The basal leaves are tufted and narrow into 
short, margined ‘peticles or stems. Erigeron is Greek, 
signifying old man in the spring, alluding to the 
whitish hairs with which the plant is covered. 
While the long stalk looks stiff, and is erect, the 
flowers have a certain refinedness that is becoming and 
graceful. The species is found from Nova Scotia to On- 
tario and Minnesota, south to Florida and, Louisiana. 
THE THISTLES 
Many a happy-go-lucky barefoot lad has knit his 
brows and bulged his cheek with his tongue, or whistled 
while he danced on one foot and held the other, after 
treading on a prickly tuft of Thistle leaves along the 
way to or from his favourite swimming hole. That 
is the way he learned to know the Thistle and to respect 
it. Can this be the true story of how. the Scotch learned 
to dance the Highland fling? One night, a long time 
ago, a barefoot Dane experienced the same sensa- 
tion and startled a Scotch sentinel, who saved his. 
sleeping comrades from annihilation. This incident 
caused the patriotic Scots to adopt the Thistle as their 
national emblem. In Scotland itis truly “a thing of 
beauty and a joy forever,” but the American farmer 
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