536 



THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



pension during this month, of the efforts of nature, while 

 she is preparing to unfold the brilliant treasures of autumn. 



The spring produces in the greatest abundance those 

 flowers which are peculiar to a northern latitude. As the 

 season advances we find more of those tribes which are pe- 

 culiar to warm climates. The roses and rosaceous flowers 

 usually appear in the early summer weeks, and the flowers 

 of these genera are rare in tropical regions, being the deni- 

 zens chiefly of temperate latitudes. The papilinaceous flow- 

 ers, of which the greater numbers of species are found within 

 the tropics, do not appear with us in profusion unfil the 

 latter part of summer. The prevailing hues of the summer 

 flowers are the diff"erent shades of scarlet, crimson and pur- 

 ple, which become paler as the days decrease in length and 

 the temp'erature becomes cooler. Thus the bulbous Arethusa, 

 that flowers in .Tune, is of a brilliant purple or crimson ; while 

 the adder's-tongne Arethusa, that appears a month later, is 

 of a pale lilac. The brightest tints of our native species 

 belong to the summer flowers. Such are the scarlet lobelia, 

 the narrow-leaved kalmia, the red lily, and the swamp rose. 



With August commences a kind of vegetation unlike any 

 that has preceded it. The compound flowers, a very exten- 

 sive tribe, begin to be conspicuous. These flowers are char- 

 acteristic of vegetation in the autumn, the greater part of 

 them coming to perfection during this season, commencing 

 with a few species in the month of August. All these in- 

 crease in beauty and variety until September arrives, bearing 

 superb garlands of asters, sunflowers and golden rods, which, 

 though exceeded in delicacy and brilliancy by the earlier 

 flowers, are unsurpassed in splendor. The season of the 

 autumnal flowers may be dated as commencing with the 

 flowering of the trumpet weed, or purple eupatorium. This 

 is one of the most conspicuous plants in our wet meadows, 

 during the early part of September. It often grows per- 

 fectly straight to the height of six feet, in a favorable soil, 

 bearing at regular distances around its cylindrical stem, a 

 whorl of leaves, which by their peculiar curvature give the 

 plant a fancied resemblance to a trumpet. Soon after this 



