280 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Blue 
asters, 
Rushes and 
Jjiags. 
lemon-green, but as the flower opens into 
fuller bloom it changes to a clear, luminous 
chrome-yellow—a color that holds as a distinct 
hue for perhaps a greater distance than any 
other in nature’s scale. Later on in the year, 
the golden-rod becomes faded and rusty, and is 
then contrasted with quantities of blue asters 
that grow up beside it and around it in the 
fields and meadows. In America it is in sort a 
national flower, growing tall and rank along 
almost every hill-side and roadway, and wher- 
ever growing lending mellowness and beauty 
to the landscape. 
The bushes, the ferns, the heather, and the 
golden-rod are coverings that belong distinctly 
to the uplands, the side-hills, and the mountain- 
slopes. The coverings that grow along the 
shore and upon the flat marshes and salt mead- 
ows are of an entirely different family. Some 
of them are grasses of thick, rank growth ; 
others belong to the sedge group, and are even 
ranker in growth and darker in coloring than the 
grasses. The rush and the cat-tail grow along 
almost every coast and river delta where the 
ooze and mud washed down by streams give 
them a footing. I have already spoken of 
their great expansive beds and their varied 
