The Newtown bee., 1898-07-08

first glance, looks like dry twig, but,
examined more closely, it proves to be a
spike of odd, fantastic flower.
Now all this is only q slight glimpse
into an almost endless subject. Aside
from names and classificat n, there is
much else to be said about the plant life
OF these towns. By vegetable anatomy
we might study the minute structure of
plants, for instance the skeleton, tissues
and skin of leaf, or by physiology see
how the leaf breathes and the sap circu-
lates through it's veins and hundred
other wonderful things in the plant
economy. But this 10 not necessary-ln-
deed, only the simplest botany is neces-
sary to put US on speaking terms, as it
were, with the commonest wild flowers.
What pleasure it is to know them!
There are many flowers (some in this
county, tOo,) that have twined them
selves into history and literature; we al.
ways associate these with their story,
and they become doubly dear. How the
trailing arbutus calls TO mind that sweet
4uhluL SkOEy VI mIASh CbhhAkIshA
"How through the Plymouth woods John AL
den went on his errand;
Crossing the brook at the ford, where it
brawled over pebble and shallow,
Gathering still, as he went, the May flowers
blooming around him,
Fragrant, filling the air with q strange and
| wonderful sweetness,
| Puritan lowers,' he said, 'and the type OF
There are in all country places a con-
siderable number OF wild plants not men
toned in Gray's botany. They belong
to the great human family. Most of
them are perennials,- they live on from
year to year. Some are plants that have
escaped from cultivation, others are gen
uine wild species that flourish in our
bitches and roadsides, multiply, and
produce annually other individuals Just
like themselves in kind and value.
Though they often resemble the lilies of
the field, insomuch as "they toll not,
neither do they spin," the likeness goes
no further. They are, for the most part.
unsightly, weedlike plants,-human
less and troublesome. There are among
them, too, offensive and poisonous sorts
like the carrion flower, deadlynightshade
and poison ivY--to be stunned by the
community and kept moved down as
much as possible by the scythe of,the law.
What is to be done with ell these wild
growths? They must be dealt with In the
light OF what Emerson says
THAT A WEED Is ONLY A PLANT WHOSE
USE HAS NOT BEEN DISCOVERED.
Taking an extended view Of the human
landscape around as we see places where
certain qualities have spread over q whole
township like daisies. You all know the
history of the ox-eye daisy-how it be-
gan it's career as garden flower, hand
some and useful within limits, but 1t ran
wild and scattered everywhere, till now
it Ia pernici0us weed, bent on crowd
ing out all the grass in the meadows.
The social quality, like this flower, is
valuable in it's place and very charming,
but in some towns it has escaped and ov-
er run the community, destroying more
profitable things, till little remains but a
daisy field.
Observing the human vegetation fur
Their, we are impressed by the number of
useful plants that are degenerating and
forming brush lots in many towns.
Thickets Of Seeding apple trees, as it
were, scraggy and choked up with
brush. They blossom profusely and
have snowy flowers, but the fruit la in
significant, or, II large, 1t is Intellectual
ly tasteless and has no moral value. If|
they were only pruned, grated with q
few twigs OF ambitious, sturdy, and high
character and kept trimmed, what crops
of valuable fruit these trees would pro-
ducei
AS we pass along the high
way OF life here, we see clumps Of
old lilac bushes by the roadside.
ZINE has not affected them, they are
gay with blossoms and charming to be-
hold yet somehow they make us sad.
Instinctively we look about for the |
ruins OF d deserted home, and find it-a
heap OF decayed abilities, few broken
down aspirations and . tangle Of dead
Id what once garden--all
hiddens behind the Elilac bush. High
possibilities Of mind and soul, abandon-
ed and covered up BY the charm Of good
looks, pleasant manners, and sunny
whare In All hnman nature can we