34 BULLETIN 15 7, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



most of them had faded, flowers of the thistle {Circium< muticimi) 

 still were mimerous. Much of the goldenrod (here predominantly 

 Solidago canadensis and S. nemoralis) had passed, and some had 

 gone to seed. The principal flowers were small white asters {Aster 

 ericoides) in very great profusion, smaller patches of a larger light 

 purple kind and, near the woods, small groups of the tall and showy 

 New England aster {Aster novaeangliae) . Goldenrod in full flower 

 still was very common, and along roadsides and where the grass was 

 thin there were numerous scattered plants of the lovely mistflower 

 {Ewpatorimn coelestinuvi) ; two of these, growing close together, had 

 flowers of pure white. 



These flowers, especially the small white asters and the far less 

 frequent mistflowers, were the ones chiefly visited by the butterflies. 



The pink gerardias {Agalinis purpurea) still were conspicuous, 

 and in the damper spots were individual plants, small groups, or 

 rarely larger patches of the closed gentian {Gentiana andrewsi). 

 Other conspicuous plants were very numerous yellow daisies {Rud- 

 beckia) and occasional white daisies {Chrysanthemv/m leucanthe- 

 mv/rn) . 



Some of the yellow daisies, the black-eyed-susans {Rudhechia 

 hirta)^ all fresh and in full flower, growing in the drier areas, bore 

 from five to eight heads, which were always of great size, with the 

 i-ays from 37 mm. to 43 mm. in length. But most of them, the orange 

 coneflowers {R. fulgida)^ were of quite a different aspect, much 

 branched, and with very numerous and much smaller flowers, with 

 the rays usually about 20 mm. long, and often only from 7 mm. to 

 10 mm. long or even less. On very many of these plants the rays of 

 all the flowers were in the form of cylindrical tubes with five teeth 

 at the end ; on others the rays on every head would be of very diverse 

 forms, strap-shaped, with the edges curved inward and united for a 

 greater or lesser distance from the base, or wholly tubular. A dead 

 example of the small-flowered type of yellow daisy {R. fulgida) was 

 pulled up by the roots and the flowers counted. The plant was about 

 a meter tall, and was found to have exactly 350 flowers. 



The wonderful wealth of flowers and the vivid colors of the leaves 

 of the bushes and the trees in the field itself and in the woods— the 

 crimson of the sumacs, the light yellows of the tuliptrees, and the 

 yellows, oranges, and browns of other sorts — were an appropriate 

 setting for the butterflies. 



There were the usual late-summer insect songs, the incessant dron- 

 ing of the grasshoppers, and the occasional chirp of crickets, while 

 from the wet spots there came from time to time the curious rattling 

 trill of the swamp cricket frog {Pseudaeris feriarum), the tadpoles 

 of which, in all stages from the newly hatched to fully grown, were 

 to be seen in all the shallow puddles. 



