288 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



an amateur to distinguish and classify them. 

 The Golden rod was so named in England be- 

 cause of a scepter-like form — had it been 

 named in America it would have been called 

 "golden plume." 



Asters and Everlastings and Sunflowers lend 

 vivid coloring to the fields and add extra inter- 

 est. Few new flowers are to be sought for in 

 this month. Yet the few that offer are calen- 

 dar events of the year. Late in September and 

 October in quiet retreats there comes the most 

 beautiful of all fall blossoms, the fringed gen- 

 tian. The color is that of heaven's own blue 

 and its delicate beauty is so elusive as to defy 

 the most skilful brush of the artist. How ex- 

 quisitely it colors the low meadows. Bryant 

 has written of this flower : 



"Thou waitest late and contest alone 

 When the woods are bare and birds are flown, 

 And frost and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near its end; 



Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through Its fingers to the sky, 

 Blue — blue — as if the sky let fall 

 A flower from its cerulean wall." 



Then there is that familiar flower, the 



