1892.] ESSAYS. 143 



northward. At one time, fine specimens could be gathered 

 in Mr. Joseph Walker's pasture on Mill street, but with the 

 cutting of the wood I fear they have disappeared. It is one 

 of our most striking wild flowers. The cardinal flower with 

 its flaming head is the typical flower of summer ; and when 

 it has matured, autumn is near at hand. Its home is by the 

 water-side, among the tall sedges and reeds of a clearing made 

 in swampy woodland. Nowhere else in nature, I believe, is 

 there an example of such depth of color combined with so 

 much brightness. It is, I am glad to say, thoroughly domes- 

 ticated at Elm Park. 



Belonging especially to the autumn are the composite flowers ; 

 though the erigerons come in summer, and the dandelions and 

 gnaphaliums in the spring. Of the asters there are about twenty 

 species, of the goldenrods nearly as many more. To New 

 England these homely plants are what the heather and broom 

 are to the mother country. No spot of earth seems so parched 

 and barren that some of these common plants may not thrive 

 upon it ; and we have no other class of herbaceous plants among 

 us, which on a scale so grand aflects the general coloring of the 

 landscape. 



From the first of September, till frost time, their yellows and 

 blues gradually and insensibly become lost in the purple of the 

 wild Indian grasses, producing that tone which is the delight of 

 a painter, and even when the frost has touched them, their prin- 

 cipal charm is not lost. It is after the snow has fallen and while 

 the fringillas and the snowbuntings are foraging among them, 

 that we observe aright the indescribable beauty of line which 

 gives to each individual plant its character. Perhaps no other 

 flower is so savagely parodied on canvas by the brush of the 

 amateur. Certainly 'tis the delight of the true artist and his 

 despair as well. It is not a mass of crude yellow ; it is an aggre- 

 gate of beautiful forms placed in proper relations to each other, 

 and colored to harmonize with its natural surroundings. 



While these plants are so common, their value is not appre- 

 ciated, nor do they find a home in our lawns and gardens. Never- 

 theless, for certain purposes, they have no competitors. If it be 

 desirable to connect the dwelling-house with the ground on 



