THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 195 



est shorter weeds of the roadside : these are robin's 

 plantain (Erigeron hellidifoliui-) and daisy ileabane 

 (Erigeron strigosus). The former looks like a blue 

 aster out of season ; it blooms in May and June 

 along moist banks and shaded byways. The latter 

 appears like a miniature aster, either perfectly white 

 or slightly tinged purple ; it blooms from early June 

 to late September. Both of these plants grow, at 

 most, not over twenty inches high. The sweet scabi- 

 ous [Erigeron anmms), however, is a plant with a 

 more imposing presence. It is a tall weed, usually 

 three and sometimes five feet high, with a stout, 

 much-branched stem beset with little hairs, and nar- 

 row upper, but broader lower (coarsely toothed) leaves. 

 The white or purplish flowers have short rays and 

 broad, dull-yellow centers. This is a very common 

 weed in the waste places beside the road, and one 

 which I often find in company with the coarse bur- 

 dock. 



!N"ext among our tall weeds (but these are not so 

 very tall) are the familiar white everlastings. Pearly 

 everlasting {Anaphalis margaritacea) is quite the 

 handsomest species. It grows from one to two feet 

 high, and the stem is leafy to the top which expands 

 in a large, broad head of white flowers. The best 

 way to distinguish this species from the common 

 ones is to examine the little petals (really scales of 



