i 4 SOME AUTUMN DAYS IN IOWA 
they are shaped exactly like little barrels. But 
such beautiful blossoms ought to suggest something 
better than barrels. They never open. The blue 
corolla is closed at the mouth as if to protect the 
stigmas and stamens from the cold and only they 
see its inward beauty. The flower is like many a 
mother, the beauty of whose life is never seen in 
society, but only by her loved ones at home; or 
like the Sister of Mercy, whom the world knoweth 
not, but whose gentle ways and kindly deeds mean 
so much to the sick or to the children committed to 
her care. The beauty of the life is there and it 
is very real; but it is never paraded. 
There is another beautiful little gentian to be 
found in many parts of Iowa. It is the five-flow¬ 
ered gentian (Gentiana quinque-flora ). It is much 
smaller than the others, and a much paler blue. 
Usually it has five blossoms on a stem, not always. 
The cymose branches curve out and up, making 
the plant look like a delicately beautiful candle¬ 
stick, at the shrine of a saint. This gentian is 
often found growing abundantly on the face of 
a limestone cliff, where the argillaceous shales 
have weathered into a marly slope which is kept 
moist by the water which trickles down from 
above. 
These gentians are almost the only flowers in 
October. Here and there is a straggling aster 
