STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I3I 



Two successive mornings I spent the time from early breakfast 

 until school walking way into the country about two miles and 

 back again, to be rewarded each time by just a few specimens 

 of the beautiful fringed gentian. At last on the third occasion, 

 I called a small boy to my assistance and received from him 

 directions to cross over into the field where the cedar trees grow 

 and I should find what I sought. And to my great delight and 

 that of the friend who was with me we found an abundance of 

 those beautiful fringed gentians in full bloom, the largest num- 

 ber that I have found at all in this part of the State. The only 

 other time that I have found them at all like it, and that of 

 course far exceeded it, was between Thomaston and Rockland 

 where they grow exceedingly abundantly in the fall and where 

 they have the beautiful blue color that the nearness to the sea 

 Jntensifies. A large place in literature nature holds as well as 

 in memory. Constant change is the characteristic of all 

 nature's processes. 



When does the year begin? Suppose one wished to spend a 

 year with fruits and flowers, at what time of the year should 

 they begin? He may begin at any time of the year. If the 

 question were asked me. When does spring begin ? O, I should 

 say without hesitation, it begins some time in September or 

 October; certainly the spring is well on by the early November 

 days that we are now having. You may find in a brief walk, 

 hint after hint of the presence of next spring already. Our 

 newspapers have reported strawberries in full blossom, straw- 

 berries ripe, raspberries in full blossom, raspberries ripe, during 

 the present warm fall. To what year do those strawberries that 

 we now gather belong? To what year do the late blossoms 

 belong? I passed my neighbor burying his cultivated straw- 

 berries with brush to protect them from the severity of winter, 

 and by the roadside within a few feet I picked strawberry 

 blossoms in full bud. Did they belong to that particular year 

 or were thev early foregleams or forerunners of the next year? 

 Certainly, the latter. We can say that the late dandelions 

 which bloom by the roadside and other flowers that come to 

 cheer us as if to bid us good-by are really the heralds of the 

 coming spring, coming beforehand to remind us of the spring 

 that is coming so soon. From the fringed gentians and the 

 witch-hazel blossoms which come, as we all know after the 



