33 2 ECOLOG Y. 



tive bracts as a halo around the clusters of insignificant flowers. 

 The laurel (kalmia) with its clusters of fluted pinkish blossoms 

 is a joy only too brief. Smaller and less pretentious ones 

 abound, like the whortleberries, amphicarpaea, bush-clover 

 (lespedeza), sarsaparilla, and so on. 



498. Autumn plants. — In the autumn the glen is clothed 



with another robe of beauty. With the fall of the " sere and 



i yellow leaf," golden-rod and aster still linger long in beauty 



Fig. 273. 

 Spray of witch-hazel (hamamelis) with flowers ; section of flower below. 



and profusion. When the leaves have fallen the witch-hazel 

 (hamamelis) begins to flower, and the snows begin to come 

 before it has finished spreading its curled yellow petals. 



499. The landscape a changing panorama. — In our tem- 

 perate regions the landscape is a changing panorama; forest 

 and field, clothed with a changing verdure, don and doff their 

 foliage with a precision that suggests a self-regulating mechan- 

 ism. 



In the glad new spring the mild warmth of the sun stirs the 

 dormant life to renewed activity. With the warming up of the 

 soil, root absorption again begins, and myriads of tiny root 

 hairs pump up watery solutions of nutriment and various salts. 



