grasses and flowers waved in the wind. Nature paints with large 
strokes, she gives ns fields of Daisies and Goldenrod and Meadow- 
sweet and the exquisite Meadow-rue ; she covers a lake with 
Water Lilies and plants her mountain-side with Heather. 
Then again the element of the unexpected plays its spicy- 
part, as when we are walking in the woods and fields and come 
suddenly on a clump of Violets and a fine bunch of Joe Pye 
weed, or purple fringed Orchis, our hearts spring up as if 
we too beheld a "rainbow in the sky." 
But after all nothing equals the charm of the way Dame 
Nature frames her flower pictures. She plants a lovely bunch 
of frail Wind-flowers at the foot of some great forest tree and 
bids the sunshine and shadows play about it. She scatters her 
field flowers in the long grass where the wind sways them until 
you are sure you hear a strain of music ; and she plants the 
stately Water-Hemlock where you see not only its own beauty, 
but the softened image in the water. 
Some of our wild flower names suggest much: Indian-pipe, 
Pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Painted-cup, Trumpet-flower, 
Jewel-weed, Shepherd's purse and Life-everlasting. The saints 
are not forgotten and we have St. John's-wort, St. Andrew 's- 
cross, St. Bennet's-herb, St. James '-weed and Our-Lady's thistle. 
We all know the charm of the New England wayside, there 
the lovely wild things have their own sweet will. In some of our 
western states there is much the same beauty. In the northern 
part of Illinois we have largely a prairie country and poor soil 
to deal with. If our field flowers, Milk-weeds, Iron-weed, Shoot- 
ing-star, Wild Roses, Spiderwort, Goldenrod and Asters and all 
their lovely kith and kin were not cut down only to give place 
to Ragweed, Thistles and Smartweed, our waysides could be a 
joy and not a sorrow. Who knows but that the Garden Clubs 
may take up a campaign of education and each year rescue a 
mile or two of our prairie roads from the land of the unlovely. 
Mary Drummond. • 
Wild Flower Stories. 
Lovers of gardens should be lovers of all wild-growing things 
and would be if they were not discouraged by the Latin names 
and the difficulty of wading through much "language" to 
become friendly with the home life of the "wild." 
Our great, great grandmothers, those wonderful women who 
were not only mothers, wives and teachers but cooks, dress- 
makers, weavers, gardeners and doctors combined, well knew the 
character and peculiarities of each native and immigrant plant. 
Their attic ceilings bristled with herbs and their children were 
taught the preparation of medicinal herbs as an important part 
of their education. Not only did our forefathers bring the herbs 
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