STURDY SURVIVORS OF 

 SUMMER 



The autumnal flora is interesting in that it 

 holds to the poles of life; it bears in its bosom 

 the dying and the dead, at the same time that 

 it welcomes youth, insistent, omnipresent youth, 

 roystering up and down the highways and by- 

 ways in the persons of the Sunflowers, the Gold- 

 enrods, and above all the Asters. These are 

 the favorites of the season, the joy of all our 

 northern autumns, not defiant of winter but 

 heedless of it. 



With September well under way one may see 

 along the highway many of the darlings of 

 summer still in sturdy bloom. Placing at the 

 head of the list the fading rather than the open- 

 ing flowers, the Mullein comes first, for it is 

 just putting forth the last and topmost blossoms 

 on its tall, brown, clumsy spike. Notwith- 

 standing the tradition that the Mullein is known 

 in England as the American Velvet-Plant, it is 



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