FIELD AND STUDY 



The watchful broom routs them; but the next day 

 or the next week there they are again, and now and 

 then one actually gets into the kitchen, slipping in 

 between your feet as you open the door. They bring 

 word from over the hills, and the word is: "Sooner 

 or later Nature hits her mark, hits all marks, be- 

 cause her aim is broadcast and her efforts ceaseless. 

 The wind finds every crack and corner. We started 

 on our journey not for your door, but for any door, 

 all doors, any shelter where we could be at rest; and 

 here we are!" 



The purple loosestrife travels from marsh to 

 marsh in the Hudson River Valley, and as its seeds 

 are not winged, one may wonder how it gets about 

 so easily. It travels by the aid of wings, but not of 

 its own. Darwin discovered that the seeds of marsh 

 plants are often carried in the mud on the feet of 

 marsh birds. Years ago the loosestrife was in a large 

 marsh six miles south of me. A few years later a few 

 plants appeared in a pond near me, and now this 

 and near-by ponds and marshes are lakes of royal 

 purple in August. The loosestrife in late summer 

 makes such a grand showing with its vast armies of 

 tall, stately plants that one welcomes it to our un- 

 sightly marshes. 



Only the present season did I observe a peculiar 

 feature of our wild clematis that g, little close atten- 

 tion might have shown me at any time: its conspic- 

 uous appearance in September, after its flowers 

 38 



