SEPTEMBER 39 



of worn-out ties increased the heat. Yet one re- 

 membered how the right-of-way in spring was 

 decorated with orange puccoon, violets, straw- 

 berry blossoms, and later showed extensive gar- 

 dens of white anemones and purple spiderwort. 

 Now, except where some employee has his little 

 patch of potatoes, or where the fires of the sec- 

 tion-gang have devoured and blackened, there are 

 almost continuous belts of autumnal blossoms — 

 sunflowers, goldenrods, bright asters, and vervain 

 being prominent. Beyond, are cornfields dotted 

 with pumpkins, the glare and rumble of threshing 

 scenes, and once or twdce a kingfisher speeding 

 above a pond. 



Des Moines, September 9, 1906. 

 The sumac foliage is reddening, and the locusts 

 along the low banks of the Skunk near Colfax are 

 already tinged with yellow. Sumac seems to have 

 been among the plants most frequently observed 

 by the early travelers in the prairie region. It is 

 mentioned, for example, by Woods, in 1822, and by 

 Flagg, in 1838. Miss Cooper begins her rather 

 elaborate account of autumnal foliage in mid- 

 September. One finds these entries for the month : 

 '^September 12: The woods, generally, are green 

 as midsummer — but a small shrub here and there 

 is faintly touched with autumnal colors. . . 

 September 25 : The woods are still green, but 

 some trees in the village are beginning to look au- 



