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BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



"Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through its fringes to the sky." 



This lovely wanderer at one time lived in numbers in 

 the Rowell meadow on the shores of Turtle Pond. In 

 1903 I found it as late as November 4 on Epsom Ridge. 

 In 1897 and 1902 I marked it for the last week in 

 September at Batehelder's Mills and on the Shaker 

 Road. You would probably find it in none of these 

 places, for it flees like a bird before the hunter. 



But the flower of the month that sheds its spicy, 

 aromatic fragrance everywhere is the witch hazel. It 

 seems the very spirit of the autumn. It puts forth 

 its delicate, yellow fingers in September, and on No- 

 vember 25, 1905, just a month before Christmas, I 

 found it in full bloom on the Little Pond Road. How 

 inspiring to see this shower of golden stars when skies 

 are gray and the birds have flown. Is it Jupiter come 

 to visit Danae? There is nothing that equals its 

 spicy scent, unless it be the sweet fern of the upland 

 pastures mid the sun-dried summer grasses. There is 

 virtue in you, witch hazel, Egyptian balm; and it is 

 fitting that the earth should be wrapped in spicery to 

 prepare it for its winding sheet of snow. 



March 26, 1906. 



