XXX. 



THE FLOWERS OF AUTUMN. 



THE student of nature, who is accustomed to general 

 observation, cannot fail to have noticed the different 

 character of the flowers of spring, summer, and autumn. 

 Each season, as well as climate, has a description of 

 vegetation peculiar to itself ; for as spring is not desti 

 tute of fruits, neither is autumn of flowers, though they 

 have in general but little resemblance to one another. 

 Those of spring, as I have already remarked, are deli 

 cate and herbaceous, pale in their tints, and fragrant in 

 their odors. The summer flowers are larger, more bril 

 liant in their colors and not so highly perfumed as those 

 of spring. Lastly, the flowers of autumn appear in 

 unlimited profusion, neither so brilliant as the former, 

 nor so delicate as the latter. They are produced on 

 woody stalks, often in crowded clusters, and nearly des 

 titute of fragrance. The differences in the general char 

 acteristics of the flowers of different seasons are an 

 interesting theme of speculation ; and they represent, 

 somewhat imperfectly, the flowers of the different lati 

 tudes. The flowers of the higher latitudes resemble 

 those of spring, of the temperate zone those of summer, 

 and the flowers of the tropics those of early autumn. 



