SOME PURPLES AND YELLOWS. 89 



The purple cymes of the ironweed are now in 

 the full prime of their pristine splendor. With 

 here and there the yellow rays of a sun-flower 

 or an actinomeris 20 mingled, they present a 

 pleasing picture on these August morns more 

 pleasing because toil and turmoil are absent, 

 while peace and calm free from all art of man 

 surround them. 



Thistles are past their flowering prime and 

 their seeds, buoyed up by silken pappus light as 

 gossamer, go scudding past, borne on the wings 

 of the south wind. 



The handsome rose purple petals of a tick tre- 

 foil 21 gaze up at me from within a half foot of 

 my side. The plant is dwarfed in size, yet has 

 vigor sufficient to send up its solitary leafless 

 flower stalk and open wide its half dozen showy 

 pea-shaped flowers. 



How I revere thy furrowed bark, O black oak, 

 lichen covered, seamed and gnarled as it is! 

 Within it is enfolded the strength of a century's 

 growth. High and spreading thy branches, 

 noble scions of a noble sire! Long may the 



*Verbesina alternifolia (L.). 

 "Meibomia nudi flora (L.). 



