Identifier: birdsnature111902chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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under cultivation,but hasbut little value as a gardenflower. But in the waste grounds ofroadsides it is a pleasing sight even if itsleaves are gray with dust. This plant is sometimes called Simp-lers Joy. It was given this name be-cause in years gone by it was a popularherb with the simplers, or gatherersof medicinal plants. THE BLUE SPRING DAISY. (Eri^eron pulchcllns.) Daisy-like and modest, is not the namethe Blue Spring Daisy much more appro-priate for this hardy little plant than Rob-ins or Poor Robins Plantain, by whichit is often known? What has it to dowith the robin? To be sure it sendsfortli its stems and blossoms in Aprilwluii the birds are )iappicst,yct the robins appear much earlier. Then, too, the rob-ins are not poor, for they are the bestcared for among birds. Its flowers areoften of a bluish cast, though they maybe violet or even nearly wliite; they ap-pear in the spring and are daisy-like.The botanist knows this plant of thehills and banks as one of the species of 228
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the genus Erigeron. This name is in-dicative of one of its characteristics. Itis from two Greek words meaning springand old man. Old man in the springs orearly old is an appropriate name, for theyoung plants are quite hoary and thishairiness remains throughout its life. The Blue Spring Daisy is not alone,for it has about one hundred and thirtysister species widely distributed through-out the world, but they are more abun-dant in the Americas, nearly seventy ofthese occurring in North America. This unassuming plant frequentlygrows in large patches, yet does notcrowd its fellows; often it grows in lo-calities-which the more delicate and bril-liant of the early flowers are wont toshun. This may have been the themewhich inspired these lines of the poet: I love the lowly children of the earth ! I linger mid their artless waysTo feel their kinship and their fragile worth, And catch their speechless praise. Though the species of Erigeron are coarse growing and unpretentious plants,they lend

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