Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-03
THE RAMBLER MAKES ARIGHT-HANDTURN
AT PARSONS FORK AND VISITS "CAPT: JIM
While Looking for the Old
Home of Rev. Lee Massey
He Stumb1es Upon a Path
Leading to An Excellent
Virginia Dinner capt.
Jim" Wi1ey's Story -
Ruins of An Old Home.

TH HE road from Lorton to Lewis
| Chapel has been travelled by
! the Rambler several times in
/ the course of narratives about
old homes and families in the Deco
| guam country, and as he had to walk
this mile-long stretch of highway be-
| fore striking into that which leads to
the object of this story. it seems fair
! to him that you should read a few
! paragraphs about it, Perhaps it would
! not win gold medal in a good-roads
show, but in beauty show the spec
tators would gather around it and
say. isn't it lovely road" What
a charming creature it isr or Behold
Its graceful curves and it's floral bor-
ders" Any ditch or bank or bit of
| mead or wooded hillside along this
road could be entered at flower
show and the Rambler feels that it
would win applause and favorable
mention. If some great painter should
linn this road as it appeared to
the Rambler. while the golden au-
tumn sun shone on it. critics would
scott and sniff and say. This painter
is prodigal with his colors: his fancy
is riotous: his masses of yellows, reds,
blues and puppies are impossible, and
This is the season of asteraceae-
| the aster family-and they were hold
ing reunion on that road. And you
must not think that the only members
of the aster family are asters. The
eupetoriums-or must they be set
down as eupatoria?-are members of
| the family. Eupatorium has almost
as strong claim to antiquity and
aristocracy as many human families
that appear in the society columns
and the Washington directory. 1t was
named by Pliny in honor of Mithri-
dates, who was surnamed Equator. a
name compounded of Greek words
meaning born of a noble father"
| prints-of this classic plant is bone
set, from which grandma and her
grandma and old Aunt Dinah made
| boneset tea that would cure corns or
cholera, chillblains, govt, sore throat
and old age. Perhaps you never
thought of this plant as having such
distinguished godfather as Gaius
Plinius Secundus of Nuvum Comum
and of Rome, and it may be that he
saw Eupatoreum perfoliata, or bone
set, in the garden of old Antonius
Castor, where he took his lessons in
botany. Perhaps you will hold old
boneset in higher regard that you
know it's namesake was that NTH
ridates or Mithradates of Pontus, who
gave his name to the Mithradatic
wars. crossed "gladii" with some of
the best-known Roman soldiers, and
after a tragic end, not the duty of
the Rambler to relate. was laid at
rest in the royal sepulchre at Sinope.
Worse than this, the name NTH
radates comes from Mithras. the sun
god of the Persians. Why the Ram
blers old friend. Gaius Pliny, called
this plant family "Eupatoria" is one
of the few things the Rambler ad-
mits he does not know. However. he
feels that as soon as this becomes
public some of the people in town
with the finest dresses, the finest ac-
cents and the finest lap dogs will send
beggar-lice and hosts of chiggers to
bring in punches of Eupatorium
Stalks Of old boneset will be set in
"varze"- in the drawing room, and
some majestic lady. leading up her
guests to the boneset in the ''varze,:"
wilt say. "Pray let me present you to
a plant with royal sap in its cellulose
tissue; a plant that Powered on the
battlefields of Galatia. Phrygia and
Asia. and a sprig of which my pa
ternal ancestor. Reginald Bunkum.
wore in his casque when he. assisted
by William the Conqueror, annexed
England to the crown Of Normandy"
The heavenly blue mist flower
ieupatorium coelstinum-is a member
of the family the Rambler Is writing
!of. and so is that beautiful and album
!dant plant which grows in deciduous
woods and which you know as white
isnake root" So, too, is that tall plant
with purple panicles Of flowers which
you all know as Joe Pye weed, and
the Rambler would tell why it bears
that strange name, but he does not
know. and he will not invent an ex-
PLANTATION for you. To admit igno-
rance or fail to invent an explanation
lis violation Of the rules Of author