The Gentian 



Katharine Coville Woodburn , . 



Washington, D. C. 



AVE YOU ever been walking in the country in 

 late September and early October? It seems 

 indeed, as if another year were brought to an 

 end — even the staunch goldenrods and asters 

 have become nothing but fuzzy balls of pappus 

 and dry leaves. We have given up all hopes of 

 anything new blossoming and have just begun 

 to ponder on the evanescence of all kinds of 

 life . And then suddenly we chance upon this — 

 " — promise set 'mid fading," and the sequence 

 of the seasons takes on a new meaning, and life is 

 cheered by this plucky little Gentian. Bryant 

 expressed our feelings in his lines "To the Fringed Gentian." 



"Thou blossom bright with autumn dew, 

 And covered with the heavens own blue, 

 That openest when the quiet light 

 Succeeds the dim and frosty night. 



Thou comest not when violets lean 



O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen, 



Or columbines, in purple dressed 



Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest. 



Thou waitest late and comest alone, 

 When woods are bare and birds are flown, 

 And frosts and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end. 



Then dost thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through its fringes to the sky, 

 Blue — blue — as if the sky let fall, 

 A flower from its cerulean wall. 



I would that thus, when I shall see 

 The hour of death draw near to me, 

 Hopes, blossoming within my heart, 

 May look to heaven as I depart." 



The two best known Gentians are the closed or blind gentian and 

 the fringed gentian. 



The closed gentian gives the impression of an imperfect or 

 incomplete flower, a flower checked in its development before it 

 had reached the stage of opening its blue and white petals. The 

 tall stiff plant is scarcely graceful. Its beauty lies in the hue of the 



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