XXXVIII. SIWLMKR WILD FLOWERS 



"He is happiest 'who hath power 

 To ^either 'wisdom from a flower, 

 And 'u'dke his heart in every hour 

 To pleasant gratitude." 



— Wordsworth. 



The splendor of summer would not be complete without its 

 splendid flowers. They jnmctuate the slopes. They adorn 

 the roadsides. The}- mellow the air with fragrance. They 

 fill the fields with the huinming of bees, and with the flashing 

 win<^'S of brilliant butterflies. 



The summer flowers are not like those of sprin<^^ They 

 grow more openly, and fling out their colors like banners 

 by the roadsides. Spring fl(^wers 

 flash up on fragile evanescent 

 \c I ^ :^^K '^'- stems, solitary or in little clusters 



f/-=2'--^-^^ a "*" ' oi unstudied grace ; but the summer 



flowers take their time, developing 

 first strong stems and abimdant 

 leafage, and then producing great 

 compovmd clusters in fine mechani- 

 cal adjustment. Saint John's worts 

 and campions and sunflowers and 

 daisies — how lustily they crowd to 

 fill the wa>'side with their banked- 

 up foliage masses, and then how gloriously they bloom! 



Summer flowers are, moslh', rather small, and produce 

 their brilliant effects by the massing of great numbers together. 

 A few large ones, like wild roses, are solitary. Others of 

 moderate size like gerardias and otlier figvvorts are hung 

 out in o])en panicles; those of the cc^mmon mullein are in 

 long stiff" erect spikes. Many of the mint flowers are in 

 shorter and denser s])ikes, but most of the lesser flowers are 



Fic;. KKi. Turtk-heads (Che- 

 lone glabra:) e, the flower from 

 the side; h, the same with a 

 bumble-bee entering. 



2(.4 



