PHOTOGRAPHING TREES, ETC. 117 



blossom and the drying of the seed that will be sown 

 for the next year's supply. How quickly this takes 

 place is frequently realised with almost painful acute- 

 ness by the photographer. To-day the woods may 

 be full of a certain plant in all the glory of its gor- 

 geous blossoms; then to-morrow perhaps it rains, and 

 the next day we go to the woods to photograph the 

 flower, and find its day is gone; instead of the fine, 

 sturdy flowers, there are nothing but withered re- 

 mains, shrivelled up and lacking all beauty, while 

 here and there a single small flower hangs on as 

 though unwilling to die. Search as you may through- 

 out the woods, not a full-blossomed spray will you 

 find, for the flowering period is past. It is as 

 though an order had been given for the lowering of 

 the colours of that particular plant. 



Procrastination is a thing to be carefully guarded 

 against in flower photography. Take advantage of 

 every opportunity if you would succeed in making a 

 good collection of pictures of growing plants; and 

 such pictures are extremely interesting and well worth 

 the trouble of making. Not only do the single plants 

 show to their full advantage, but clusters or colonies 

 of them growing together are depicted by the camera 

 as they can be by no other means. What more 

 beautiful picture can be wanted than an early summer 

 swamp filled with blue-flag, or a late summer tangle 

 of iron-weed, joe-pye-weed, purple asters, and golden- 



