STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



room and space in this wide world for it and others to find 

 some little spot in which to grow. Each has its own 

 particular and ordained use. 



" Nothing lives, or grows, or moves in vain ; 

 Thy praise is heard amid her pathless ways, 

 And e'en her senseless things in Thee rejoice." 



J. Roscoe. 



EVERLASTING FLOWERS. 



" Bring flowers for the brow of the early dead." 



It is on the open prairie-like tracts of rolling land known 

 in Ontario by the names of oak-openings and plains, where 

 the soil is sandy or light loam, that flowers of the Com- 

 posite Order abound. All through the hot months of July 

 and August, and late into September, the starry-rayed 

 blossoms of the sun-loving Sunflowers, Eudbeckias, Asters 

 and Goldenrods enliven the open wastes and grassy thickets 

 with their gay colors the more welcome because that the 

 more delicate of the early spring and summer flowers have 

 long since faded and gone, and we know that we shall see 

 them no more. 



Our floral calendar might be likened to four stages of 

 life: the tender early flowers of Spring to innocent child- 

 life: the gay blossoms of May and June, with all their 

 fruitful promises, to advancing youth; the ripening fruit 

 of summer's prime, to mature manhood in its strength and 

 perfection; while the white flowers and hoary leaves of 

 our Pearly Everlastings and drooping Grasses are not inapt 

 emblems of old age, bending earthward yet not destroyed, 

 for they have winged seeds that rise and float upwards and 

 heavenwards, and we shall again behold them in renewed 

 youth and beauty. 



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