SOME AUGUST FLOWERS 



By W. VV. Bailey. • 



'TPHE triumphal march of the Comipositae is now well under 

 way. It is led by those gorgeous knights in orange and 

 black surcoats, the RiMeckias. We see them tilting in every 

 field. They hold their own, too, in this tournament — this 

 'Tield of the Cloth of Gold.'' They usurp the lists after the 

 retirement of the sentinel oxeyes. By the way, Rudbeckia, it- 

 self, should not be called oxeye. That name applies only to the 

 white weed or big daisy of our fields which the beginner is sur- 

 prised to find is a Chrysantheunun. Black eyed Susan is a good 

 and somewhat familiar name for Rudbcckia hirta. i\nother, 

 much taller, species, R. laciniata, is our familiar "golden-glow" 

 of the gardens which is getting to be too common. 



In sandy regions near the sea-coast, one will notice acres 

 of golden topped aster in this month. It is Chrysopsis falcata 

 of science; a bushy little plant with abundant yellow, middle- 

 sized heads, followed by a fluff of pappus. It is sufficiently 

 abundant to af¥ect, by its color, the entire landscape, much as 

 does gorse abroad or the Genista in Essex County, Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Plants are well known to grow in cliques or associations. 

 They have their particular friendships. Take, for instance, 

 the intimacy of golden ragwort and painted cup, or Chrysop- 

 sis with the sensitive plant (Cassia Chamaccrista) , and many 

 bush clovers. When we find one of these things we naturally 

 look for the others. Plant associations is one of the topics that 

 make ecology so fascinating a branch of botan}^ One notes the 



