252 July and Augiist Floivers. 



each an involucre of acute, short and narrow leaves. Ti, 

 umbels, too, are not crowded together, but spread apart. T 

 wet places now flowers that handsome shrub, Cephalanthus o . 

 cidc7italis, the Button Bush, with its globular heads of white 

 flowers, bristling with the long projecting styles ; and in dryer 

 spots, among underbrush, the sweet-scented Spircea alba 

 which ought to be cultivated. Now, too, the numerous Com- 

 positae are flowering, and some of them continue in flower till 

 the end of the autumn. Perhaps the handsomest native 

 plants of this order are the species of Liatris, especially £ 

 squarrosa. The stem of this is tall, bristly, and covered with 

 linear, stiff, nerved leaves, and terminated with sometimes 

 more than twenty heads of the most brilliant purple flowers. 

 Why this fine plant, and another species scarcely less elegant, 

 L. scariosa, have not been long ago introduced into the Ameri- 

 can flower garden, is only to be accounted for by that prefer- 

 ence for everything foreign, which often displays itself in such 

 ridiculous contrast with our republican institutions and profes- 

 sions. There is certainly no foreign species of Chrysanthe- 

 mum, of Cineraria, or even of Aster, which can make so fine 

 an appearance, as would a border of the neglected Liatris. 

 Various species of Eupatorium are in flower, and the best 

 known of these is E. perfoliatum, so commonly used in the for- 

 mation of a tonic decoction, by old ladies, under the name of 

 Thoroughwort. Perhaps the tallest herbaceous plant in this 

 part of the country, is another species, E. purpureum, or 

 Trumpet-weed, which sometimes grows to the height of eight 

 or nine feet. The Solidagos, and the Asters seem to take pre- 

 cedence of all other plants in the months of August and Sep- 

 tember. There is scarcely a spot to be found without some 

 species of one or the other genus ; from the dusty roadside, 

 and even the busy street, to the most retired and cool brook- 

 side, and the thickest depths of the forest. We need not de- 

 scribe any of these, the yellow racemes of Solidago, and the 

 various colored corymbs of Aster being familiar to every one. 

 The species of the latter, found in the Northern States, are 

 reckoned at more than thirty, and of the former at at least 

 twenty-five. A very handsome genus of Composite is Rud- 

 beckia. R. lacinata is the most common species, and its high 



