122 MICHAELMAS DAISY. 



highly ornamental, yet it lends a charm to spots 

 whose aspect is dreary, and to a season whose 

 flowers are daily becoming fewer in number. 



" The marsh is bleak and lonely. Scarce a flower 

 Gleams in the waving grass. The rosy Thrift 

 Has paler grown since Summer bless'd the scene, 

 And the Sea Lavander, whose lilac blooms 

 Drew from the saline soil a richer hue 

 Than when they grew on yonder towering cliff, 

 Quivers in flowerless greenness to the wind. 

 No sound is heard, save when the sea-bird screams 

 Its lonely presage of the coming storm ; 

 And the sole blossom which can glad the eye, 

 Is yon pale Starwort nodding to the wind." 



We have but one species of the genus 

 Aste7\ the name of which is significant of 

 the starry form of all its flowers. But America 

 is the native land of Michaelmas Daisies, and 

 the multitudes of those which deck our gardens 

 were brought thence. Lyell, speaking of the 

 fir woods on the banks of the Piscataqua, 

 says, " I have seen this part of North America 

 laid down in some botanical maps, as the 

 region of Asters and Golden Rods." He 

 adds, that both are there very numerous and 

 striking flowers. 



