102 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
Andrews, Griseb.) and some of these slender, humble 
hedge-hyssops (Gratiola aurea, Muhl.), with half a 
dozen or more ferns, including the dainty maidenhair 
(Adiantum pedatum, L.), our one New England repre- 
sentative of a large tropical genus of more than sixty 
species, many of which are among the choice treasures 
of the horticulturist, and some of the spleenworts, 
especially the delicate Asplentum Trichomanes, L., and 
Asplenium ebeneum, Ait., two of my favorites among 
the native ferns. August is so prolific in flowers that 
time would fail us to tell at large of the hawkweeds, 
the sunflowers, the St. John’s-worts, the willow-herbs, 
the bur-marigolds and others, many of which bloom 
unseen and can endure to live unsung. 
And the common wayside weeds! And the wild 
grasses! We must pass them by now unheeded, for we 
see by this little brook the queen of the August flowers, 
the bright, the beautiful, the far-seen, the cardinal 
flower (Lobelia cardinalis, L.). T. W. Higginson in 
his ‘‘Out-door Papers” says of it: ‘The cardinal flower 
is best seen by itself and, indeed, needs the surround- 
ings of its native haunts to display its fullest beauty. 
Its favorite abode is along the dank mossy stones of 
some black and winding brook, shaded with overarch- 
ing bushes, and running one long stream of scarlet 
with these superb occupants. It seems amazing how 
anything so brilliant can mature in such a darkness. 
