ACCORDING TO SEASON 



day is cloudy, or even, I should judge, if the wind 

 is high, the full-blown flower closes in the same 

 Variations fashion. The individuals which grow in the shade 

 are even more attractive than those which frequent 

 the open. Their blue is lighter, with a silvery 

 tinge which T do not recall in any other flower. 

 Until this year I have never encountered the plant 

 in my ordinary wanderings, but during the past 

 few days I have found it bordering in abundance 

 the Berkshire lanes. Being an annual, we cannot 

 predict with certainty its whereabouts from year 

 to year, as its seeds may be washed to some dis- 

 tance in the moist regions which usually it favors. 

 Far less delicate and uncommon, but still at- 

 Ciosed tractive, is the closed gentian. This is usually a 

 gentian stout, rather tall plant, with crowded clusters of 

 deep blue or purple flowers, which never open, 

 looking always like buds. It grows along the 

 shaded road sides, and is easily confused with other 

 members of the group, as both the five-flowered 

 and soapwort gentians have narrow corollas, 

 which often appear almost closed. 



Certain New England woods and road sides are 



now tinged with the pale blue or at times pinkish 



Five- blossoms of the five-flowered species, while in the 



gentZn* Adirondacks in early September, parts of the 



shore of the Raquette River were actually " blued " 



with what I take to have been the lance-leaved 



170 



