1893.] The Philosophy of Flower Seasons. 119 
Turn tothe Epigynz :—Caprifoliacee and Rubiacee, though 
scattered, predominate in summer; Campanulacez, partic- 
ularly in late summer and in autumn —ihe finest type C. 
americana, coming in September. Late in summer and in 
September, the Lobeliacee are in fullest perfection,—the 
splendid Lobelia cardinalis and L. syphilitica being late. And 
lastly, we meet the vast order Composite, undoubtedly nearly 
the highest of flowering plants. So numerous a group would 
naturally spread throughout the seasons, but mark :—it comes 
in all its glory late in August and straightway through the 
autumn, when we have, among many, those gorgeous genera, 
Solidago and Aster. Here the fact confronts us, that in the 
autumn the higher Sympetale hold sweeping predominance 
over the higher Choripetale. 
Few data of any consequence have been omitted from this 
review, and the evolutionary system followed has been defined 
step by step because upon it the fabric of the argument mainly 
depends. The deductions are these :—From early spring to late 
autumn there is a progression in the general character of the flower- 
groups, from the lower to the higher,—successive groups succeeding 
each other in time, parallel groups coming synchronously. And 
the later in order may be types of a higher character of devel- 
opment, or they may be specializations of a group whose normal 
forms belonged to an earlier season. In their blooming season, 
n more perfect succeed the more simple ; the aberrant, the normal ; 
he specialized, the generalized. But with the general observation 
arise certain modifying conditions. The blooming period may 
. sometimes vary from the general rule to better bring the flowers 
. among the most favorable conditions for cross-fertilization,— 
in the case of anemophilous pollination before referred to; or, 
even more obviously, in the case of entomophilous pollination, 
though here it is often doubtful whether the flower adapts 
itself to the insect’s season or vice versa. Again, plants that- 
are frontiersmen from the characteristic vegetation of a hotter 
clime may be expected in the hottest of the seasons,—e. g.: the 
Cactaces. There is an evident limitation of the flowering of 
our trees and shrubs to spring and earliestsummer. This may 
. largely be due to the excess of vital energy held stored up in 
