THE FLOWERS OF AUTUMN. 269 



ally appear in the early summer weeks, and the flowers 

 of these genera are rare in tropical regions, being the 

 denizens chiefly of temperate latitudes. The papilio- 

 naceous flowers, of which the greater numbers of species 

 are found within the tropics, do not appear with us in 

 profusion until the latter part of summer. The prevail- 

 ing hues of the summer flowers are the different shades 

 of scarlet, crimson, and purple, which grow paler as the 

 days decrease in length and the temperature becomes 

 cooler. Thus the bulbous arethusa, that flowers in June, 

 is of a brilliant purple or crimson; while the adder's- 

 tongue arethusa, that appears a month later, is of a pale 

 lilac. Our native species of the brightest tints belong to 

 summer. Such are the scarlet lobelia, the narrow-leaved 

 kalmia, the red lily, and the swamp rose. 



With August appears a kind of vegetation unlike any 

 that has preceded it. The compound flowers, a very 

 extensive tribe, begin to be conspicuous. These flowers 

 are characteristic of vegetation in the autumn, the greater 

 part of them coming to perfection during this season, 

 beginning with a few species in the month of August. 

 All these increase in beauty and variety until September 

 arrives, bearing superb garlands of asters, sunflowers, and 

 goldenrods, which, though exceeded in delicacy and bril- 

 liancy by the earlier flowers, are unsurpassed in splendor. 

 The season of the autumnal flowers may be dated as com- 

 mencing with the flowering of the trumpet- weed, or pur- 

 ple eupatorium. This is one of the most conspicuous 

 plants in our wet meadows during the early part of 

 September. It often grows perfectly straight to the 

 height of six feet, in a favorable soil, bearing at regular 

 distances around its cylindrical stem a whorl of leaves, 

 which by their peculiar curvature give the plant a fan- 

 cied resemblance to a trumpet. Soon after this appear 

 the yellow gerardias, bringing along with them countless 



