340 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[November, 



daisies, and fresher looking and lower plants of the 

 same, which will be the flower bearers of the 

 season to come. Here too is a pretty group of 

 wild carrot, and leaning over it, the long arms of 

 the white melilot. 



Many-branched Equisetum arvense humbly 

 shows itself where a little of the less fertile under- 

 soil has been turned up, and near by Ambrosia 

 artemisiafolia is still fiowerless, as is also the ob- 

 liquely-bending Aster Miser by its side. Big-leaved 

 burdock, broad-leaved plantain, ripe spiked Phleum 

 pratense, a young Rubus villosus, self-heal with 

 heads much lengthened and still exhibiting a trio 

 of flowers and twice as many lips, complete the cir- 

 cuit of the green things in and about this still bit 

 of fresh water. August yth, i88s. 



Erigeron Pennsylvanicum is the handsomest of 

 the fleabanes. It is not near so common in the 

 vicinity of Rochester — notwithstanding Common 

 happens to be its popular name — as is sweet 

 scabious (E. annuum), but would probably corre- 

 spond in frequency of appearance with E. stri- 

 gosum. Its rose-colored rays are beautiful. The 

 rayless-headed horse reed, E. Canadense, is just 

 flowering, and may be seen on streets and roads, 

 in fields and odd corners, everywhere. 



As E. Pennsylvanicum is not mentioned by 

 Gray as having noticeable root leaves, but really 

 has them, and as the root leaves of E. bellidifolium 

 are given by Gray with shape et cetera, I was at 

 first, after a hasty analysis, in considerable doubt 

 to which of these species the plant of this vicinity 

 belonged. At this date the case is easily deter- 

 mined, without looking for the basal offsets, as E. 

 bellidifolium is a May-flowering plant. The width 

 of the rays, their number, and their color, ought 

 to be sufficient, in each instance, to identify the 

 species. I would, however, hardly term the 

 flower heads of E. Pennsylvanicum, as we find 

 them here, small, but rather medium sized to large, 

 and the leaves thick rather than thin. The heads 

 of all the plants seen by me, bore rays exceeding 

 those of E. annuum : in fact, were conspicuous for 

 size as well as their rosy tinting. August loth, 1885. 



The arbor vitae overhangs the edge of the rock 

 platform below the lowest Genesee fall where the 

 cliff descends beneath it nearly perpendicularly 

 to the river's edge. 



The linden, the ironwood, and a hawthorn 

 are also there, with cow-clipped branches toward 

 the flat. One forgets the trees on catching sight 

 of this venturesome pruning. The particular cow 



that did this, we know, had no nerves. Perhaps 

 she found better footing than appears to the passer 

 , a few feet away, but it seems there as if she might 

 have taken very large risks in stretching her neck 

 to browse over such a yawning abyss. She must 

 love such food. 



The arbor vitae's disposition to overhang streams 

 must be ingrained, for I recollect noticing it along 

 the upper Mississippi years ago, at just such 

 oblique practice. Perhaps the tree may be vain 

 and loves to see itself, reversed, in the liquid mir- 

 ror below. August nth, 1885. 



All bunches of grapes are double bunches. The 

 two parts, forming the double bunch, are very dis- 

 similar in size, but why this dissimilarity I do not 

 know. The tendrils of the grape are forked, and 

 as the bunch of fruit is but a modification of the 

 tendril, the forked habit of the latter is continued 

 in the former, the result being a double panicle of 



I berries. This fact is more clearly illustrated in 

 the tendrils and correspondmg fruit panicles of 

 the Virginia creeper, a member of the same order 



I as the grape. August nth, 1885. 



How often you are asked why the May-apple 



[ was given so unsuitable a name, and at the same 



' time told that it should have ripened its fruit in 



the merry month instead of keeping it green until 



August is just ready to leave us, or September has 



actually appeared. 



} The large, golden, egg-like or prune-shaped 

 i berry of this plant, which reaches maturity beneath 

 • two green umbrellas, and perhaps a whole tree of 

 leaves still farther above, is pleasantly acid to the 

 taste. But how happens it that the substantial 

 stem and the dark deeply-lobed leaves will, about 

 ; the first of this month, hastily fall to the ground, 

 and within a week's 'time perchance pass from 

 greenness to brownness and decay ? Except for 

 the bright fruit this herb, which but a fortnight 

 ago was conspicuous in the woods, would not now 

 I be discoverable. Why this sudden vanishing, with- 

 out frost to cause it ? It must be because all the 

 I plant's life goes to the perfecting of the seed and 

 its lively flavored and gay colored envelope. 



The large, fresh leaves of the Podophyllum are 

 as attractive to me, and doubtless to many others, 

 as any of the flowers, or flowers and leaves com- 

 bined, of the early spring plants. I remember en- 

 joying them very much as seen growing in your 

 Fairmount Park on a certain grassy, half basin- 

 like descent, amongst lingering brown leaves, and 

 near the edge of a bit of woods into which they 



