58 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



of the stalks were seven or eight feet high. In this 

 or that locaHty one readily finds the ' ^ sweet, ' ' the 

 ^^thin-leaved," and the "Black-eyed Susans." 

 Many kinds of mint are now blooming; probably 

 none mth more brilliant effect than the false drag- 

 onhead, now found in masses of pinkish-red bloom 

 along the Cedar at Charles City, and the Shell 

 Rock at Mason City. Sneezeweed is flourishing. 

 This somewhat inartistic popular name might well 

 be rejected for the resonant heleniiun autiimnale, 

 suggestive both of the season, and of the far- 

 famed ' ' matter of Troy. ' ' Along the valley of the 

 Wapsipinicon, west of New Hampton, the beauti- 

 ful cardinal-flower brought back memories of the 

 cranberry bogs of Cape Cod, with some of these 

 grand lobelias adding their colors to those of ripe 

 cranberries, and of the red dresses worn by the 

 pickers. 



At Charles City one specimen of yellowish gen- 

 tian was found which Greene records as "not com- 

 mon." Its former scientific name was gentiana 

 alba, though apparently it was never called white 

 gentian. The change to gentiana favida is an ex- 

 ample of alterations the amateur will favor, be- 

 cause they indicate more accurately some prom- 

 inent characteristic of the plant in the field. Along 

 the bluffs here the harebell is in bloom. With the 

 writer, it has been associated with the wide tree- 

 less plains of Saskatchewan and with the rocky 



