106 WINTER SUNSHINE 



tramps that they are, they form one of the charac- 

 teristic features of early fall. 



I have often noticed in what haste certain weeds 

 are at times to produce their seeds. Red-root will 

 grow three or four feet high when it has the whole 

 season before it; but let it get a late start, let it 

 come up in August, and it scarcely gets above the 

 ground before it heads out, and apparently goes to 

 work with all its might and main to mature its 

 seed. In the growth of most plants or weeds, 

 April and May represent their root, June and July 

 their stalk, and August and September their flower 

 and seed. Hence, when the stalk months are stricken 

 out, as in the present case, there is only time for a 

 shallow root and a foreshortened head. I think 

 most weeds that get a late start show this curtail- 

 ment of stalk, and this solicitude to reproduce them- 

 selves. But I have not observed that any of the 

 cereals are so worldly wise. They have not had to 

 think and shift for themselves as the weeds have. 

 It does indeed look like a kind of forethought in the 

 red-root. It is killed by the first frost, and hence 

 knows the danger of delay. 



How rich in color, before the big show of the 

 tree foliage has commenced, our roadsides are in 

 places in early autumn, — rich to the eye that goes 

 hurriedly by and does not look too closely, — with 

 the profusion of goldenrod and blue and purple 

 asters dashed in upon here and there with the crim- 

 son leaves of the dwarf sumac; and at intervals, 

 rising out of the fence corner or crowning a ledge 



