GARDEN FLOWERS. 191 



decadence of the plant-life of tlie year. Their colors 

 supplement and perfect, if they do not enliven, the charm- 

 ing tones of " the melancholy days," and as long as they 

 last we seem to have about us still a remnant of the special 

 loveliness of summer. The autumn monk's-hood, Aconitum 

 autumiiale, is one of the best, with dark-blue flowers on 

 stems three feet high, lasting a long time in perfection. It 

 associates itself well with Anemone Japonica, and bears 

 bold racemes of dark-blue flowers, is very robust, and has 

 large, deeply cut leaves, and is a native of China and Japan. 

 The best-known and appreciated, perhaps, of autumn 

 flowers are the asters, starworts, or Michaelmas daisies. 

 In this country we know the New England aster the best, 

 A. JVovce-Angliw. The large violet-purple flowers appear 

 in great profusion along our roadsides. Every park and 

 flower border should have them. They grow four or five 

 feet high. A. longifolius, var. formosus, is more showy and 

 grows in the form of pyramidal bushes completely clothed 

 with bright rose-colored flowers blooming all the fall until 

 frost. A. Shortii is a tall-growing species and bears in 

 fall large bright-blue flower-heads. Chrysanthemums gen- 

 erally bloom late, on the edge of winter, but there are 

 seme kinds that come earlier in autumn. Among these are 



o 



lacustre and maximum, much alike, with large flowers three 

 or four inches across. The first grows four to five feet 

 high and likes moist soil, while maximum is of a dwarf 

 habit, only one foot high. 



There are few more showy and satisfactory plants dur- 

 ing summer and early fall than Coreopsis lanceolata often 

 mistaken for grandiflora. Its large lemon-yellow flowers 



