NABALUS 



By early August Nabalus In varied forms is 

 beginning to press forward to the blooming line. 

 It stands a leafy wand, stout and sturdy or grace- 

 ful and waving, by the road through the wood 

 or In the open, where shade may reach It at some 

 time during the day. It stands as earlier In the 

 season the Wild Lettuce stood just before It 

 developed its bushy head of pale yellow florets 

 and white downy pompons. But Nabalus, curi- 

 ously enough, has departed from the composite 

 type of flat flower-heads held up to the sun after 

 the manner of Daisy and Aster, and has fashioned 

 from its enclosing bracts its slender rays and 

 long styles a most dainty exquisite bell, greenish 

 yellow often flushed with lilac. These bells 

 hang in nodding clusters of three or four. Sev- 

 eral species occur along woodland ways, with 

 leaves so variable that one saves time to wait 

 for the bloom in order to determine the indi- 

 vidual, for the fairy bells never fail to ring both 

 name and season. In one species the Involucre 

 bracts are dark rich red though the flowers are 

 cream. 



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