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continues southward into Louisiana a gradual change in land- 

 scape and temperature makes him begin to distrust his calendar. 

 A soft warm breeze comes up from the Gulf; men are at work in 

 the fields setting out lettuce and cabbage plants or planting seeds 

 of radishes and other hardy vegetables in full expectation that the 

 coming w r eeks will bring them full crops, and in the gardens the 

 violets are blooming again. Surely this is more like spring as the 

 Northerner knows it ! 



The second blooming of the violets is especially interesting. 

 The scientist is inclined to fancy the petal-less or cleistogamous 

 flowers to differ in some essential particular from the showy 

 ones ; but the behavior of the plants here show plainly that each 

 kind of flower is merely the result of a different temperature. 

 During - the cooler parts of the year the showy flowers are pro- 

 duced, but as the heat increases the flowers begin to dispense with 

 petals and thus the apetalous flowers are found. The common 

 blue violet of the North has this same trait. The Northern 

 Autumn, however, is too short to permit much of a show of 

 flowers at that season. At the North. Winter and Summer 

 separate the violet's season of bloom into two seasons; here \\ in 

 ter is powerless and the flowers appear throughout the Winter 

 months and far into Spring. 



The flow r ers in the wild lands have now about gone. It is 

 somewhat exasperating to the flower lover to come upon woods 

 and fields that can bloom but will not. This is just the weather 

 that in the Northern States would give us hepaticas, blood-root, 

 anemones and trilliums, but here Nature makes no sign. She 

 rests if she does not sleep — no doubt she dozes in January. In 

 marked contrast to the country side the lawns and gardens of the 

 cities show scarcely any diminution of bloom. One of the chief 

 glories of the Autumn days has been the flowers of the Cosmos, 

 a bushy annual of the sunflower family, six feet or more high, 

 that from October until mid-December or later is covered with 

 a profusion of flowers the size of a silver dollar. The prevailing 

 color is orange, but there are many shades of purple and white. 



