The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1896-04-21
rra1Arp,s oRAsgY RoApsIDR8.
Floral Beauties Found Along the Briti'
Highway. 81

Floral Beauties Found Along the Britiah
Highway.
The beauty and the vegetation of the
road-margin, though varying with To-
cality and soil, conforms in each to a
certain order. By the great high roads
in the agricultural counties this rough
~ corresponds to the lawn, fiower-bor-
der. and background of shrubs OF the
cultivated garden. The finest turf that
grows, except that which has for eight
hundred years been cropped by the
cattle OF the New Forest, fringes the
highway. It owes It's quality firet TO
the passing travellers feet, which have
pressed It for centuries without wear
ing It away, and secondly to the con-
slant powdering with road-dust, the
finest and most fourtshing Of grass rer-
tillzers. The heritage consists ESinly
OF the tlnlest cloverB and the best lawn
grasses. Between the turf and the
hedge lies the roadside flower garden:
to which the fence forms a oaekgrounaa
OF shrubbery. On the level margin OF
the fiat-bordered roads this 10 also .
preserve Of wild herbaceous plants.
Among the dwarf bushes OF bramble,
rest-tarrow and lockwood, or on the
roYTher and less trodden margin,
where these do not flourish, grows the
legion OF roadside flowers, It Is the
ground sacred to the wild snap.draSon.
the musk-thIstle. cranes-bll, and
speedweli, eye-bright and white nettie,
pink convolvulus and wild carrot, Inal-
low and the big. pink clover. Some
plants seem to love the duet and sun
nearest to the roadway. Aaron s.rSo,
pink nettles, gray scabiouB and the
bright blue r's-bugloss and penny
wort thrive with coating OF dust,
washed Off by passing showers. ON
heavy soil the wayslde needs a ditch TO
drain the road: therefore meadow
sweet, loosestrife, vetch and cherry
ME" and all the dltch-plants flourish
there. When the road is bordered by a
running stream, the horal wealth OF
this waysIde garden is doubled or treb-
led, The refraction OF the sun from the
road, the confinement OF the fences, the
water, dust and light. here force the
roadside vegetation TO the utmost
There grow the largest mRrsh-mari-
colds. the longest hart's-tongues, the
tallest teazles and the greenest bur-
docks. butterflies and birds Of certain
specIes always prefer the ROADSIDE to
any other haunt, The sociable yellow
hammers and whitethroats seldom
leave the road hedges, and partridBes
have a special liking for this dangerous
nestlng-place.
Where the road Is cut deep and the
margins slope upwards, the character
OF the flower border changes. Loosely
Growing grasses take the place Of the
compact turf, and these are set IN
sprinE with beds OF white and purple
Violets, star Of Bethlehem. white nettle,
speedwell and celandlne and later with
masses of mallows and ragged-rohin.
The ants and bumblebees are the char-
acterIstic Insects Of these warm bor-
ders, the former pllIng their hills
among the loose grasses, and the latter
burrowing In the warm slopes. There
the old country women, active and In
dustrious to the last, come to gather the
medicinal plants which seem to grow
nowhere else except by the Foadsides.
No one but these old danes knows the
plants by sight, though they all fetch
their price when sent up In bundles to
the dealers in covent Garden,-London
Spectator.