The Blue Flower Border 275 
sive power of many another blue and purple flower, 
Lupine, Iris, Innocence, Grape Hyacinth, Vervain, 
Aster, Spiked Loosestrife ; it has become in many 
states a tiresome weed. On the Esopus Creek 
(which runs into the Hudson River) and adown the 
Hudson, acre after acre of meadow and field by the 
waterside are vivid with its changeable hues, and 
the New York farmers’ fields are overrun by the 
newcomer. 
I have seen the Viper’s Bugloss often since that 
day on the railroad train, now that I know it, and 
think of it. Thoreau noted the fact that in a large 
sense we find only what we look for. And he de- 
fined well our powers of perception when he said that 
many an object will not be seen, even when it comes 
within the range of our visual ray, because it does 
not come within the range of our intellectual ray. 
Last spring, having to spend a tiresome day riding 
the length of Long Island, I beguiled the hours by 
taking with me Thoreau’s Summer to compare his 
notes of blossomings with those we passed. It was 
June 5, and I read: — 
u The Lupine is now in its glory. It is the more im- 
portant because it occurs in such extensive patches, even an 
acre or more together. ... It paints a whole hillside with 
its blue, making such a field, if not a meadow, as Proser- 
pine might have wandered in. Its leaf was made to be 
covered with dewdrops. I am quite excited by this pros- 
pect of blue flowers in clumps, with narrow intervals ; such 
a profusion of the heavenly, the Elysian color, as if these 
were the Elysian Fields. That is the value of the Lupine. 
The earth is blued with it. . . . You may have passed 
