THE FLOWEES OF AUTUMK 



THE student of Nature, who is accustomed to general 

 observation, cannot fail to have noticed the different 

 character of the flowers of spring, summer, and autumn. 

 Each season, as well as climate, has a description of 

 vegetation peculiar to itself; for as spring is not desti- 

 tute of fruits, neither is autumn of flowers, though they 

 have in general but little resemblance to one another. 

 Those of spring, as I have already remarked, are deli- 

 cate and herbaceous, pale in their tints, and fragrant in 

 their odors. The summer flowers are larger, more bril- 

 liant in their colors, and not so highly perfumed as those 

 of spring. Lastly, the flowers of autumn appear in un- 

 limited profusion, neither so brilliant as the former, nor 

 so delicate as the latter. They are produced on woody 

 stalks, often in crowded clusters, and nearly destitute of 

 fragrance. The differences in the general characteristics 

 of the flowers of different seasons are an interesting 

 theme of speculation ; and they represent, somewhat im- 

 perfectly, the flowers of the different latitudes. 



But there are certain species, appearing late in the 

 autumn, that display the characters of the spring flow- 

 ers, like the neottia, the purple gerardia, and the hedge 

 hyssop. 



The summer flowers are in their greatest splendor in 

 the latter part of June. The greater number of those 

 which commence their flowering in August are autum- 

 nal, and do not acquire their full maturity until Sep- 

 tember. The summer flowers are characterized by their 



