THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 197 



Heleniumb). Tins is a tall, stout herb, with stems 

 from three to five feet high, whose mucilaginous roots 

 have been used as a horse medicine. The flowers are 

 yellow with extremely narrow rays and coarse yellow 

 disks ; the leaves are large and woolly beneath, the 

 upper ones clasping the stem slightly, and the lower 

 ones distinctly stemmed. Elecampane is usually found 

 on damp ground where the road passes the swamp, in 

 which thousands of grasshoppers and crickets swell 

 the grand chorus of a midsummer day's song. The 

 drowsy music is not easily separated in my mind from 

 a weedy wilderness of burdock, golden-rod, and ele- 

 campane ; for that matter we do not have to peer 

 beyond the topmost leaves of the latter plant to see 

 a musician or two ; undoubtedly, if we look sharp, 

 we will behold a grasshopper (more properly speak- 

 ing, a locust) sitting contentedly on his high perch, a 

 listener if not a performer. His name is Melano- 

 jjIus hivittatus, and he with his red-legged cousin, 

 Melanoplus fernur-ruJjum^ the commonest of our 

 field locusts or grasshoppers, finds the succulent 

 leaf of the Inula furnishes a very delectable luncheon 

 in the middle of a hot day. These two insects are 

 always perched on the big, dusty leaves of the road- 

 side. I have never seen either of them alight and 

 sit still ; they always turn at least a quarter of the 

 way around, and thus make sure of covering the 



