COMPOSITE FAMILY 



twisted and flaunting, equal or exceeding the broad, 

 brownish inner ones. Akenes wedge-shaped, armed 

 with two to five, stiff downwardly barbed awns. 



"The windflower and the violet they perished long ago, 

 And the briar-rose and the orchis died amid the summer 



glow; 

 But on the hill the golden-rod, the aster In the wood 

 And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn 



beauty stood. 

 Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven as falls 



the plague on men, 

 And the brightness of their smile was gone from up- 

 land, field, and glen," 



— William Cullen Bryant. 



The Brook Sunflower is more at home in New 

 England and in New York than in the Middle 

 West, though common in northern Ohio. In its 

 chosen home along swampy runlets at the border 

 of lakes and ponds it glows in the landscape like 

 a flaming fire. In full maturity it outyellows 

 the Goldenrod, outflames the midday; it is the 

 most direct, the most insistent, the most com- 

 pelling of all fiield and roadside yellows. This 

 is not only because it is a marvellous color, but 

 in addition it frequently covers large areas of 

 lowlands with its closely set bloom that runs 

 along a brookside like a conflagration. Not- 



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