THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
31 
species of gentians brave the storms of approaching winter and 
''ghnimer out of sleety dew" to bid us good by for the year. 
Willow herb, blue sage and sunflowers are among our 
most common autumn flowers. Throughout the mountains 
of the northwest the harebell is often to be found in blossom 
till nearly Christmas. 
In enumerating the flowers of late autumn, there is one 
eccentric child of the underwoods which we must not forget. 
One fine afternoon, late in October, I was gathering autumn 
leaves within sight of the blue expanse of beautiful Lake 
Michigan. I had stopped to examine the yellow leaves of a 
group of low shrubs, wondering what they were, for I had 
never seen them before and had been in the country only a few 
weeks. Soon I noticed that the branches were thickly set with 
peculiar yellow blossoms. Among the flowers were odd, 
woody-looking seed vessels, containing shining black seeds. 
I essayed to pry out one of these, but had hardly touched it 
when it was no longer there. I tried another when something 
whizzed past my ear and I heard a faint rattle among the dry 
leaves some yards away. A strange plant it seemed, indeed, 
clothed with the yellow of falling leaves and opening blossoms, 
quietly preparing for another growth of seed and 
shooting last year's crop into places more favorable to 
growth. There seemed something familiar about it and my 
mind went wandering through the labyrinths of memory, dig- 
ging up the forgotten things of all I had ever heard or read 
until it turned up something and there flashed across my mind 
the word witch-hazel. 
Besides these true autumnal flowers there are in many 
localities certain spring flowers which frequently produce bios- 
