HELENIUM AUTUMNALE. 



AUTUMN SNEEZEWORT. 



NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSITE. (ASTERACE/E OF LIXDLEY.) 



Helenium AUTUMNALE, Liiiiiasus. — Leaves lanceolate, serrate, smooth or slightly pul>escent, 

 decurrent; flowers loosely corj'mbous. Stem two to three feet high, branching strongly, 

 winged by the decurrent leaves. Leaves tapering to each end, or elliptic-lanceolate, more 

 or less deeply serrate. Flowers large, numerous, terminal, with drooping rays, each end- 

 ing in three obtuse teeth, and longer than the large, globous disk. (Wood's Class- Book 

 of Botany. See also Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, and 

 Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States.) 



HERE comes from yonder height 



A soft, repining sound, 

 Where forest leaves are bright, 

 And fall, like flakes of light. 



To the ground. 



It is the autumn breeze 



That, lightly floating on, 

 Just skims the weedy leas, 



Just stirs the glowing trees. 

 And is gone. 



He moans by sedgy brook, 



And visits, with a sigh. 

 The last pale flowers that look, 



From out their sunny nook. 

 At the sky. 



There are times when those who arc acquainted with Nature 

 in her autumnal moods will recognize at once the eminent truth- 

 fulness of the beautiful picture drawn by the sweet poet whose 

 death we have only lately lamented. When speaking of the " last 

 pale flowers," Bryant, of course, had no particular flower in view, 

 and the reader may therefore fill in the details of the picture 



