Some Neighborhood Wild Plants Worth Domesticating 
The area within the boundaries of Loudoun and Fauquier 
counties is neither distinctly high land nor low land — being beyond 
the coastal plain hmits on the one hand and depending for its great- 
est elevation upon the few htmdred feet of the much worn Blue Ridge 
Mountains, with their rounded spurs and foothills. The climate 
of this region is designated as temperate. It is never visited by 
devastating storms nor by droughts that threaten famine. The soil 
is productive, being especially well suited to grasses. The rocks are 
mostly gneiss, a hard dark gabbro commonly known as "nigger 
head, " some limestone and cahco rock and here and there an unearthed 
quarry of marble used mostly in the making of agricultural hme. 
Such in a few words are the rather equable or nearly neutral features 
of this country in which vegetation had to make a footing and adapt 
itself, and which have given rise to a vigorous but modest flora 
when compared to the gay and rampant crowds that make up the 
jungle and rank forest growth of tropical and subtropical latitudes. 
Ours is essentially a region of temperateness in things pertaining to 
plant life. We must not look for the dazzling variety of form and 
phenomena to be seen in the tropics, or even in some regions nearer 
home. Our flora is relatively tame but none the less is too varied 
and too extensive to be reviewed in a short paper Hke the present. 
Rather, therefore, than attempt so extensive a description it has been 
thought more promising of interest and more advantageous to the 
members of the Garden Club to mention a few plants that present 
such attractions in their native habitat as may tempt one to domesti- 
cate and possibly improve. Such experiments will certainly be 
interesting and come easily within the reach of the most modest 
garden and gardeners. The following is a hst of some of the common 
wild plants that we have had under notice in our own garden or 
seen under cultivation by others: Achillea millefolium or Yarrow is 
ordinarily seen with prejudiced eyes and at too great a distance. At 
close range its good points wiU readily be admitted. A dehcate pink 
variety is especially pretty. A small group in a well exposed spot 
in the? garden is recommended. Tephrosia virginiana or Goats Rue 
is quite startling when come upon in the dry and rather barren 
spots that it selects in Nature. Its panicle of large yellowish white 
flowers with a dash of bright purple suggests at once the claim to a 
place in cultivation. Cassia marylandica or Wild Senna, three or 
four feet in height, with large bright yellow flowers and pretty foU- 
age, frequents alluvial soil and rather shady places whether in Na- 
ture or in cultivation. Cassia nictitans or Wild Sensitive Plant, a 
near relative of the preceding, is dainty of aspect and shows its 
sensitive nature by closing its leaves soon after being plucked or 
* 17 
