orchards and by-roads with cheerful golden radi- 

 ance! And when these shining stars have grown 

 dim and faded from their firmament of green, there 

 appear in their place such white wraiths of their 

 former selves as resemble the moon seen by the 

 light of day. They are now so many extin<5t suns, 

 so many ghosts of the dandelions, soon dissolving 

 into still less substantial state, to be spirited away 

 on the winds. 



During the summer the common dandelions 

 gradually disappear, and at length the fall dande- 

 lions suddenly spring into prominence, poking their 

 flower-heads up on long scapes. With commend- 

 able thrift these are closed every night, that a little 

 pollen may not be wet by the dew. These fall 

 flowers appear to be more numerous even than the 

 early species. They can sustain themselves in tall 

 grass where the latter could not, keeping their 

 flower-heads always floating on the rising tide of 

 green. You may see fields of red clover mixed 

 with dandelions, while the Virginia creeper lies in 

 scarlet splendor along stone walls, and goldenrod 

 and asters are massed on the borders — Elysian 

 fields surely. The play of light and color is a 

 kind of music, and stimulates one to some inner 



71 



