The tendency of plants to escape from their first environments 

 is illustrated by some of our cultivated flowers. The seeds are 

 widely dispersed; they take root by the wayside or in fields, and 

 every season travel farther from their original home. At length 

 they grow among the native flowers with the appearance of an in- 

 digenous plant. I found a seemingly new species once in a walk 

 along the Pompton fields i^New Jersey"). It was a pretty crimson 

 flower of the Compositae, and as I could not find any mention of it 

 in the Manual {an old edition of Gray), I plumed myself on being 

 a discoverer, with all the pride of an amateur astronomer who 

 locates a new asteroid. 



My pretty flower was only an oyster-plant " escaped from, gar- 

 dens." 



In this chapter a few of these wanderers are grouped. 



