124 AUTUMN TIDES. 



season before it ; but let it get a late start, let it come 

 up in August, and it scarcely gets above the ground 

 before it heads out and apparently goes to work with 

 all its might and main to mature its seed. In the 

 growth of most plants or weeds, April and May rep- 

 resent their root. June and July their stalk, and Au- 

 gust and September their flower and seed. Hence 

 when the stalk months are stricken out as in the pres- 

 ent case there is only time for a shallow root and a 

 foreshortened head. I think most weeds that get a 

 late start show this curtailment of stalk and this solici- 

 tude to reproduce themselves. But I have not ob- 

 served that any of the cereals are so worldly wise. 

 They have not had to think and shift for themselves 

 as the weeds have. It does indeed look like a kind 

 of forethought in the red-root. It is killed by the 

 first frost, and hence knows the danger of delay. 



How rich in color, before the big show of the tree 

 foliage has commenced, our road-sides are in places in 

 early autumn, rich to the eye that goes hurriedly 

 by and does not look too closely, with the profu- 

 sion of golden-rod and blue and purple asters dashed 

 in upon here and there with the crimson leaves of 

 the dwarf sumac ; and at intervals, rising out of the 

 fence corner or crowning a ledge of rocks, the dark 

 green of the cedars with the still fire of the woodbine 

 at its heart. I wonder if the way-sides of other lands 

 present any analogous spectacles at this season. 



Then when the maples have burst out into color, 

 showing like great bonfires along the hills, there is in- 

 deed a feast for the eye. A maple before your win- 



