220 FLOWERS OF THE SUN 



seem waiting, alert, for the redwing's reveille, the 

 roll-call of the Marsh Frogs, and the meadow 

 lark's announcement that now, at last, it is "Spring 

 o' the y-e-a-r ! " 



In the well-groomed farming country the flowers 

 of the sun are routed from the open fields, and 

 forced to take refuge along the fences or on the 

 rocky islands of shallow soil that remain invincible 

 fortresses, unconquered by the plow. But in two 

 places these sun -lovers still run riot, dominating the 

 shiftless attempts at agriculture, both in the aban- 

 doned fields of Lonetown and in the upland moors, 

 between Sunflower Lane and the Sea Gardens, 

 where at most an annual cutting here and there 

 of the coarse grass is the only disturbing ele- 

 ment, great stretches being left wholly untouched, 

 so that the ground is often fairly drenched with 

 color. 



The flowers of the sun are, superficially speak- 

 ing, of two kinds, simple and composite. Of the 

 simple flowers the Wild Rose, Milkweeds, Convol- 

 vulus, Meadow Lily, and Prickly Pear are types ; 

 while the tufted aggregations of small, tubular blos- 

 soms, the outer row of which may or may not have 

 an extended, raylike petal, giving the flower-head 

 a disk shape, are the composites, of which the com- 



