HAUNTS OF FRINGED GENTIAN. 53 



Springs. I never heard that he found it, 

 though." 



Peehaps no American flower has been more 

 sung of by the poets and generally mentioned 

 with interest than the Fringed Gentian. Com- 

 ing late in the year, when the floral ranks are 

 growing thin, and hiding in swampy ground 

 away from the trodden haunts of man, this 

 beautiful blossom must be sought with care. 

 In the early morning, too — 



" . . . when the quiet light 

 Succeeds the clear and frosty night," 



must her lover seek, else will the dainty fringed 

 petals have closed and the cup of cerulean blue 

 be hidden from sight. Yet on a cool, dark day, 

 when the sun failed to shine, I have known the 

 flower to remain open the whole day. 



Long had I sought for it, but always to find 

 that the blue which had beckoned me was that 

 of the lobelia — blue cardinal flower. One day 

 a friend described a flower, new to her, which 

 had been brought from Eobert's Mill, or the 

 Fish Hatchery, she thought; blue and with a 

 fringe on the petals. 



A fringe on the petals'? And blue? It must 

 be! There is no other. 



