194 FAMILIAR FEATURES OP THE ROADSIDE. 



commonest weed by the roadside becomes one of the 

 most beautiful things in the world when the strength 

 of its color is portrayed on the impressionist's can- 

 vas. We may look at it skeptically, but the artist 

 reveals a real not an imagined beauty, which all of 

 us have eyes to see quite as well as he. 



If the general color eliect of Joe-Pye weed is 

 attractive, the delicate beauty of white snakeroot 

 {Eupatorlum ageratoides) is greater. 

 This beautiful weed grows beside 

 nearly every woodland road in 

 the North. The flowers are 

 dainty copies of the soft, wool- 

 ly blossoms of the ageratum 

 in our gardens ; the leaves are 

 ovate-pointed, long-stemmed, 

 and coarse-toothed. The 

 whole character of the 

 plant is smooth, <«^5r"^\ 



not hairy, and its 

 slenderer stems 

 grow from three 

 to four feet high. It is one of the refined members 

 of the Eiipatorhmi family group. 



Passing the multitudinous golden-rods and asters, 

 to the most important of which I have devoted a 

 chapter fui'ther on, we come to two of the common- 



white Snakeroot. 



