2J:6 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



will find climbing over the roadside thickets. This 

 is the one that Whittier's barefoot boy could find for 

 us as easily as a botanist ; he knew better than any- 

 one else 



Where the groundnut trails its vine. 



It beai's from three to seven ovate lance-shaped 

 leaflets, and rich clusters of beanlike blossoms, dull 

 purple-brown in color, and somewhat violet-scented ; 

 they bloom in late summer and through September. 

 The groundnut is quite common in low ground 

 tlirough the North, from Maine to Minnesota. I 

 have drawn with the vine a bit of Whittier's coun- 

 try ; a glimpse of the beautiful Merrimac River not 

 far from Newburyport, Mass. 



Among onr blue wild flowers there are none pret- 

 tier than the gentians which appear in the autumn 

 months. The fringed gentian (Getitiana crinita) is 

 the most l)eantiful of the species, although I do not 

 consider its color as striking as that of some of 

 the other less handsomely formed gentians. The 

 " fringed lids," as Bryant calls them, of this flower 

 constitute its essential point of beauty. 



The common closed gentian {Gentiana Aiidrew- 

 sii) is far more interesting in color if not in charac- 

 ter ; the blue is variable and is broken by plaits of 

 white where the corolla is folded together. The 

 flower is perhaps one of the most puzzling and in- 



