THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
Vol. 111. August 15, 1902. Xo. 2 
CONSPICUOUS AUTU^IX FLOWERS. 
By Prof. Bailey. 
The last weeks of September are particularly rich in flowers. 
Nature appears to make one supreme effort and now ''gathers up 
her robes of glor}'" as she prepares for the bleak and inhospitable 
winter. We do not find these showy flowers in the woods so 
much as upon their borders and in swamps. While the prevail- 
ing colors are blue and gold, the asters and goldenrods being 
largely displayed, we are by no means confined to these tints. The 
scarlet cardinal flower can still be found by water-courses, the 
most intense, if not the grandest of our wildflow^ers. A Lobelia, 
is the type of a very handsome family, known to every one in cul- 
tivation through the pretty blue trailing vine. Lobelia erinus, of 
hanging baskets. In the Middle States there is a large wild blue 
Lobelia— 3.8 handsome nearly, as the red one. Both are suscep- 
tible of cultivation and improvement. 
In quite similar places one often flnds the monkey flower or 
Miinulus ringens, tall and handsome with blue flowers. It be- 
longs to the Figworts. Besides the goldenrod and asters, the 
Corppositae present us various wild lettuces of the genus Pre- 
nanthes, recognized by their persistent cream-colored heads. But 
most brilliant of this family are the bur marigolds in swamps, the 
yellow and rosy coreopses and certain sunflowers. The latter 
grow in copses or along waysides. The bogs are made xevy gay 
with the splendid disks of these star flowers : indeed ever\- Com- 
poste is regal—even though it be a weed. 
And what, by the way is a weed ? The question may be var- 
iously answered. Some define it as a plant which grows where 
it is not wanted, while Lowell tells us "it is a flower in disguise.'' 
Under either definition the same plant may be a weed or a prized 
acquisition according to circumstances. Some things that were 
