OF FALL 



various other morbid conditions of the system, 

 and to this day whenever I come across the 

 plant I can hardly resist the impulse to gather 

 it, probably with a vague, hardly compre- 

 hended desire to inflict a dose of it upon some- 

 one as a means of getting even with the past. 



I HAVE very vivid recollections of how we 

 used to hunt for Gentians in early fall, and 

 how delighted we were when we found them. 

 The fringed gentian is one of the loveliest of 

 all blue flowers, and it is a source of regret to 

 all flower-lovers that it is not more plentiful. 

 The closed gentian has always seemed an im- 

 perfect flower to me, a flower checked in its 

 development before it had reached the stage 

 of opening its blue-and-white petals. The 

 Gentian is almost always found in low, damp 

 soils, generally along the banks of a stream 

 where there is a good deal of shade. I know 

 of but few places where it can be found at 

 present ; it seems to be retreating, like the red 

 man. But once in a while, of late years, I 

 have come upon little colonies of it as if it had 

 called a temporary halt in its retreat. I have 

 not found a fringed Gentian in a long time. 



