SEPTEMBER. 225 



tember comes to us crowned with a new world of veg- 

 etation unwitnessed in the joyous summer time. The 

 flowers of this month have little of the delicacy of the 

 earlier tribes, yet in glowing tints and luxuriance of 

 growth, they far surpass any that have preceded them. 

 The golden-rods that began to be conspicuous about 

 the middle of August, have multiplied until the fences 

 exhibit almost interminable hedge-rows of yellow nod- 

 ding plumes. Millions of asters of an endless variety 

 of sizes, arrangements, and colors, have arisen in every 

 soil and situation, some of a pure whiteness, some pur- 

 ple, others of a dark blue, and fringed with petals, as 

 fine as the rays that sparkle about a midnight taper. 

 In the borders of the woods, and in the meadows which 

 have been vacated by the purple orchis and the pale 

 arethusa, several species of gerardia, or American fox- 

 glove, hang their golden blossoms, like so many lamps 

 within the gloom of their shady retreats. 



Wherever the scythe of the mower has not cut down 

 the flowers, the trumpet-weed and the yellow balsamine 

 grow more thriftily than ever, and the fragrant spikes of 

 the clethra have not entirely faded in the coppice. All 

 over the hills and along the green road sides, the flowers 

 of the autumnal hawk-weed, like the dandelions, their 

 vernal sisters, are gleaming in golden profusion ; and 

 the white odorous everlastings, are everywhere pouring 

 out their delicate and peculiar incense. Multitudes of 

 thistles, of various forms and sizes, exhibit their bright 

 globes of pink, white, and purple blossoms, and little 

 goldfinches are hopping and twittering among their 

 downy and ripened heads. The evening primroses 

 are still brilliant after sunset, and in the later afternoon, 

 and the hyssop spangles the brook sides with its yellow 

 cups, blended with the delicate flowers of the purple 



