24 SOME AUTUMN DAYS IN IOWA 
the crow, the snowbird, and some of the sparrows 
and woodpeckers; the Iowa woods and fields are 
never wholly deserted. The scream of the blue 
jay, the caw of the crow and the chick-a-dee-dee-dee 
of the little black capped bird which bears the name 
are all familiar sounds in November. 
No flowers, no leaves, said Hood. Once, 
again, poor Hood! In this walk through the 
Iowa woodlands in early November, there are 
several varieties of late asters, some straggling 
blossom in the sheltered places, of the Indian 
tobacco {Lobelia inf lata) , pepper grass ( Lepidium 
Virginicum) , and sneezeweed {Helenium autum- 
nale) . If one should set out to swell the list and 
should call a few fading petals a blossom he might 
doubtless swell the list to five times this number. 
The dandelion {Taraxacum officinale) may often 
be found in November, the yellow blossom forming 
the golden period at the end of the flowering 
season. 
How many have seen a dandelion ? Everyone, 
of course. Yes, but how many have really seen 
one? When is its stalk the longer? When is it 
drooping, and when does it stand erect? It was 
Darwin who first noticed that the stalk is short and 
drooping while the flower is full of yellow gold, 
but long and erect when the flowers have developed 
