FLOWERS OF AUTUMN. 239 



autumnal flowers may be dated as commencing with 

 the flowering of the trumpet weed, or purple eupa- 

 torium. 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 fancied resem- 

 blance to a trumpet. Soon after this appear the yellow 

 gerardias, bringing along with them countless multi- 

 tudes of asters, golden-rods, and autumnal dandelions, 

 until the uplands are universally spangled with them, 

 and gleam with a profusion of blossoms unwitnessed 

 at any other season. 



The asters are the most remarkable of the flowers of 

 autumn, and are, in many respects, characteristic of 

 them. Their stalks are woody — but they are not 

 shrubs, and their flowers are more delicate than brilliant. 

 The foreign asters which are cultivated in our gardens, 

 though exceeding the native species in the brilliancy of 

 their hues, are inferior to the latter in elegance of growth, 

 and in the delicate structure of their blossoms. The 

 prevailing color of the autumnal flowers is yellow ; yet 

 there is not a single yellow aster among their whole 

 extensive tribe. Near the latter part of September, the 

 fields are covered with asters of every shade, from the 

 deep blue of the cyaneus and the purple of the New 

 England aster, to the purest white. The walls and the 

 edges of the woods are bordered with long rows of 

 golden-rods, and multitudes of gaudy flowers have 

 usurped the dominion of the roses, hiding the summer 

 shrubbery beneath their tall and spreading herbage. 



In the latter part of autumn some of the flowers 

 bear a resemblance to those of spring. Such are the 



