Historic leaves, volume 4, April, 1905 - January, 1906

[13] the wild mustard and carrot, ornamental as they now are to fields and waysides, are escapes from our forefathers' vegetable gardens. Other interesting plants of this class which are still occasionally found in our city are the alsike, that pretty pink clover which originated in Sweden, where it is considered one of the most valuable of forage plants; the brilliant cone-flower, or black-eyed Susan, a native of our Western prairies, and unknown in New England fifty years ago; the mullein, the bladder campion, and the sky-blue succory, which Dr. Bigelow, who appreciated every charm of the flowers he so faithfully described, called an elegant plant. As for the field daisy, the buttercup, and the dandelion, they hold a much warmer place in our affections than do many of the choice native species. James Russell Lowell sings of the dandelion:—

Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way,
Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.

Thou art more dear to, me
Than all the prouder summer blooms may be.
My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with thee.

But the wild flowers have disappeared more rapidly and more completely than did the forests 250 years ago, and to-day it would be more difficult to coax back within our city limits the orchids and gentians and ferns, the meadow beauty and the pitcher plant of forty years ago, than to start a forest of oaks, beeches, and hickories.