280 



NATURE FOB ITS OWN SAKE 



lemon-green, but as the flower opens into 

 fuller bloom it changes to a clear, luminous 

 chrome-yellow a color that holds as a distinct 

 hue for perhaps a greater distance than any 

 other in nature's scale. Later on in the year, 

 the golden-rod becomes faded and rusty, and is 

 then contrasted with quantities of blue asters 

 that grow up beside it and around it in the 

 fields and meadows. In America it is in sort a 

 national flower, growing tall and rank along 

 almost every hill-side and roadway, and wher- 

 ever growing lending mellowness and beauty 

 to the landscape. 



The bushes, the ferns, the heather, and the 

 golden-rod are coverings that belong distinctly 

 to the uplands, the side-hills, and the mountain- 

 slopes. The coverings that grow along the 

 shore and upon the flat marshes and salt mead- 

 ows are of an entirely different family. Some 

 of them are grasses of thick, rank growth ; 

 others belong to the sedge group, and are even 

 ranker in growth and darker in coloring than the 

 grasses. The rush and the cat-tail grow along 

 almost every coast and river delta where the 

 ooze and mud washed down by streams give 

 them a footing. I have already spoken of 

 their great expansive beds and their varied 



