NOVEMBER 235 



times lives over the winter. Should she do 

 so, it is only as a battered, dilapidated relic, 

 with no aim or purpose in her unnaturally 

 lengthened existence. 



The truth of the matter is, that down 

 South grasshoppers live over the winter; in 

 the extreme North they never do. On the 

 border line — that is, the middle belt of the 

 country — they sometimes do, though not as 

 a usual thing. But insects, however much 

 they may seem out of place in winter, are 

 surely no more so than are flowers, and yet 

 we have a not uncommon November bloom. 



THE WITCH-HAZEL 



The witch-hazel waits until all other 

 flowers are over; then, just as likely as not, 

 after it has thrown away all of its leaves and 

 is quite bare, in October or November, it 

 puts out its yellow flowers. I suspect it 

 does it to attract some of the little flies that 

 hover about at this time. The warm days 

 still bring out those insects, and now the 

 witch-hazel blossoms have no competition. 

 So they get their insect visitors, and thus set 



