THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Vol. I. July, 1901. No. 1. 



BALDER'S BROW. 



By C. F. Saunders. 



One of the most familiar of weeds is a certain little plant 

 with bushy, finely dissected foliage, which we have all seen on 

 urban commons and vacant lots where the grass is kept close 

 cropped by goats and goslings. In the country its favorite haunt 

 is back of the barn and in the lane, though sometimes, too, we 

 find it out front by the road in the congenial company of such 

 democratic herbs as pigweed, ragweed and milkweed. Late in 

 June it begins to display its pretty flowers which are exact dupli- 

 cates of the ox-eye daisy, except that they are not so large as 

 the latter. 



All through the summer these daisy-like blossoms may be 

 seen cheerfully nodding to simple souls that find pleasure in quiet, 

 everyday beauty; but should you be tempted to gather a bunch 

 of the flowers, you will find the plant has so unpleasant and 

 weedy an odor that you will probably throw your posy away in 

 disgust. This rank smell is a characteristic which gives a key 

 to one of its common names, to wit, the fetid chamomile (An- 

 themis cotula). It is indeed a poor relation of that bitter cha- 

 momile which is so important an item in the winter supply of 

 medicinal herbs wherewith old-fashioned country housewives 

 still hang the garret rafters. 



Common as it is on Uncle Sam's farm, the plant is by no 

 means an aboriginal American, but an immigrant within a 

 couple of hundred years from Europe. Like many another weed 

 that we pass by daily without a thought, it has brought with it 

 a memory that invests it with an atmosphere of romance ; for in 



