NATURE AND THE POETS. 107 







olet" and "The Fringed Gentian." Of this last 



flower he says : 



" Thou waitest late and com'st alone, 

 When woods are bare and birds are flown, 

 And frosts and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end." 



The fringed gentian belongs to September, and, when 

 the severer frosts keep away, it runs over into Octo- 

 ber. But it does not come alone and the woods are 

 not bare. The closed gentian comes at the same 

 time, and the blue and purple asters are , in all their 

 glory. Golden-rod, turtle-head (Chelone), and other 

 fall flowers also abound. When the woods are bare, 

 which does not occur in New England till in or near 

 November, the fringed gentian has long been dead. 

 It is in fact killed by the first considerable frost. No, 

 if one were to go botanizing and take Bryant's poem 

 for a guide he would not bring home any fringed 

 gentians with him. The only flower he would find 

 would be the witch-hazel. Yet I never see this gen- 

 tian without thinking of Bryant's poem, and feeling 

 that he has brought it immensely nearer to us. 



Bryant's poem of the " Yellow Violet " has all his 

 accustomed simplicity and pensiveness, but his love 

 for the flower carries him a little beyond the facts ; 

 he makes it sweet scented, 



44 Thy faint perfume 

 Alone is in the virgin air: " 



and he makes it the first flower of spring. I have 

 a ever been able to detect any perfume in the yel- 

 cow species ( Viola rotundifolid). This honor be- 



