A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



walks, I seem to be intruding upon some 

 very private and exclusive company. The 

 large yellow C3^ripedium has a peculiar, 

 heavy, oily odor. 



In like manner one learns where to look 

 for arbutus, for pipsissewa, for the early 

 orchis; they have their particular haunts, 

 and their surroundings are nearly always 

 the same. The yeUow pond-lily is found in 

 every sluggish stream and pond, but Nym- 

 phcea odorata requires a nicer adjustment 

 of conditions, and consequently is more re- 

 stricted in its range. If the mullein were 

 fragrant, or toad-flax, or the daisy, or blue- 

 weed, or goldenrod, they would doubtless 

 be far less troublesome to the agriculturist. 

 There are, of course, exceptions to the rule 

 I have here indicated, but it holds in most 

 cases. Genius is a specialty : it does not 

 grow in every soil ; it skips the many and 

 touches the few ; and the gift of perfume 

 to a flower is a special grace like genius or 

 like beauty, and never becomes common or 

 cheap. 



"Do honey and fragrance always go to- 

 gether in the flowers 1 " Not uniformly. 

 Of the list of fragrant wild flowers I have 

 given, the only ones that the bees procure 

 134 



