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With most plants there is an upper and under surface to the 

 leaves plainly indicated by their structure, but in the compass 

 plant both sides of the leaf are alike, and both being equally sensi- 

 tive to the light, in their evenly balanced struggle to gain the sun- 

 shine, they assume the position which has given the plant its 

 name of compass, standing nearly upright and presenting their 

 edges, not their tips, directly north and south. 



The plant is a large, rather coarse looking perennial, with a 

 rough, hairy surface and a resinous juice. The leaves are deeply 

 lobed, or toothed, and in rich meadows sometimes grow from one 

 and a half to two feet or more in length, and a foot or more broad. 

 From this group of massive leaves rises the tall flower stalk with 

 its yellow flowers, showing by their resemblance to its near rela- 

 tive, the sunflower, that this plant belongs to that immense family, 

 the Compositae. Unlike the sunflower, the blossoms are small, 

 but doubtless they increase in size under cultivation, as the florists 

 are now offering the plant under the name of Sylph in in, and 

 recommending it highly as an ornamental plant with large 

 flowers. 



There are some erroneous ideas current regarding this plant. 

 It has been imagined by some to be magnetic, and others appear to 

 have the notion that its blossoms instead of the leaves are the parts 

 that constitute the "compass." As to the uniformity with which 

 it shows the points of the compass, a careful observer, after an 

 examination of a large number of specimens, reported that one- 

 third of them bore within half a point of north, and two-thirds 

 within a point. 



" Weeds are active enemies, not to be despised so much as 

 hated. They are cut down or uprooted whenever found. So 

 • great a pest are they that man has taken them for a type of rank, 

 rapid and useless growth. Yet, when curiosity leads us to ob- 

 serve them, we find beauty even in the meanest." — W. W. Bailey. 



