ith short
rays; and the aster Shortii, or Short's aster, which is found on banks
and along the edges of woods and does not usually bloom until
September. It has a slender stem and thickish leaves, heart-shaped at
the base; its rays number from ten to fifteen and are usually bright
blue, sometimes violet blue.

* * * * *

September brings us the first and one of the most beautiful of the
gentians, the white gentian. We are accustomed to think of the
gentians as brilliantly blue, but the first one to adorn the waste
places where the horses could not take the mower, is this white
gentian. It is one of the plants which make a magnificent appearance
in a tall, thin-stemmed vase, in your library. You need but one and if
you chance to find a patch you may take a plant without any
compunction of conscience, for they are usually numerous. At the top
of the smooth stem are four leaves with heart-shaped bases, gradually
tapering to points at the ends. These four pale green leaves cross
each other after the manner of a St. Andrew's Cross. Just where the
four leaves are thus joined to the stem is a cluster of some six,
eight, ten or even more, large, yellowish white, or greenish white
blossoms. Perhaps at the next set of leaves, about four inches down
the stem, there will be several other blossoms, in the axils. In the
swamps and bogs the barrel-shaped blossoms of the closed gentians are
growing larger day by day and by the twentieth of the month the
fringed gentian, known only to a favored few, here in Iowa, will show
the first of its blossoms.

* * * * *

In these last days of the summer there comes a grateful sense of the
ripeness which crowns the year. Nothing in nature has hid its talent
in a napkin. Every tree and shrub and herb has something to show in
return for the privilege of having lived and worked in a world of
beauty. Catbirds on the eve of their departure for the southland are
feasting on the red and yellow wild plums, and the crab apples are
beginning to give forth a faint fragrance which will grow more
pronounced from now until October. The amber clusters of the hop are
poured in profusion over the reddening fruit of the hawthorn. Farther
on is the brook Eschol where the purple grapes are hanging. The snowy
clusters of the sweet elder, which were so beautiful in July and early
August, have developed into ample clusters of juicy berries which
bring m