

queen changed the leaves into shining 

 gold and the trunk and branches into 

 beryl. But poor tree ! Its value was no 

 sooner known than it was visited day 

 and night by men who stripped it of its 

 wonderful leaves and when the elves once 

 more danced in the meadow, they found 

 only the naked trunk to greet them. 



Indignant at this treatment again the 

 fairy-queen touched it with her wand 

 and the beryl trunk was changed to a 

 green stem from which sprung clusters 

 of golden flowers. Now it became the 

 fairies' cherished plant and on moonlight 

 nights if you are worthy of a sight of 

 the "wee folks" they may be seen danc- 

 ing merrily in its shadow. 



Along the water's edge the brilliant 

 red gleam of the cardinal flower at- 

 tracts us. 



"As if some wounded eagle's breast 

 Slow throbbing o 'er the plain, 



Had left it airy path impressed 

 In drops of scarlet rain." 



So richly attired is this flower that it 

 has received a name which likens it to 

 the magnificently attired dignitaries of 

 the Roman church. 



Growing along the roadside in moist, 

 shadowy places we find the deep-tinted, 

 bronze-leaved gentian, whose 



" — Sweet and quiet eye 

 Looks through its fringes to the sky, 

 Blue, blue as if that sky let fall 

 A flower from its cerulean wall. " 



"Heaven's own blue," Bryant paints it. 



And now the pale, yellow, fragrant 

 blossoms of the witch-hazel cause throbs 

 of delight as we gather and admire it 

 from the hill-side. It blossoms when its 

 leaves have fallen and its nuts ripened. 

 The pleasure experienced at the spring- 

 like apparition of this leafless yellow- 

 flowered shrub in the autumn woods, 

 arises from the thought it suggests that 

 in the midst of death we have a fore- 

 taste of life — a prophecy of the great 

 yearly resurrection which even in au- 

 tumn, the dying time, we may antici- 

 pate. The Indians long ago discovered 

 the value of the bark of the witch-hazel 

 for medicinal purposes, and it is now 

 utilized in many well-known extracts. 



The erect, slender weed that you see 

 about the highways, with low rosettes of 

 woolly leaves and yellow blossoms on 

 their long spikes is the mullein. The 

 colonists brought it from Europe, al- 

 though in England it is known as the 

 ''American velvet plant." The Romans 

 dipped the long, dried stalk in suet and 

 used it as a funeral torch. The Greeks 

 utilized the leaves for lamp-wicks. "Mul- 

 lein-tea" is greatly esteemed by the 

 country people for pulmonary complaints 

 of men and beasts. 



Each autumn Mother Nature dons this 

 regal mantle of purple and scarlet and 

 gold, then "rests and sings like Ruth 

 among her garnered sheaves, her lap be- 

 ing full of goodly things." 



Emily F. Bass. 



THE NESTING OF A CARPENTER BEE. 



( Clisodon term inalis . ) 



About the middle of August when the 

 flowers are at their best in our mountain 

 canyon (Beulah, New Mexico), and the 

 wild bees and butterflies have a daily 

 surfeit of nectar, this clever little car- 

 penter goes to work to make a storehouse 

 and to provide for the young of the next 

 generation. Many bees and wasps make 

 their nests by cutting out burrows in 

 trees and bushes, but few work as quickly 

 and skillfully as Clisodon terminalis. 



Last summer I watched with much in- 

 terest a number of these bees at work 

 making their homes in an old pine tree 

 that had fallen by the roadside. One bee 

 had just begun her labors, and had hardly 

 cut through the bark when I first saw 

 her, her strong mandibles worked like 

 tiny saws on the wood, and the sawdust 

 looked a miniature storm as it was scat- 

 tered by her quickly moving legs. 



A bee near was much farther along 



127 



maaBnamn 



