The
Banks Had Passed The Height Of Their Beauty, And Some Of The
Brighter Flowers Showed By Their Faded Tints
That the season was
verging towards the afternoon of the year; but this sombre tinge
enhanced their sincerity, and in
The still unabated heats they
seemed like the mossy brink of some cool well. The narrow-leaved
willow (_Salix Purshiana_) lay along the surface of the water in
masses of light green foliage, interspersed with the large balls
of the button-bush. The small rose-colored polygonum raised its
head proudly above the water on either hand, and flowering at
this season and in these localities, in front of dense fields of
the white species which skirted the sides of the stream, its
little streak of red looked very rare and precious. The pure
white blossoms of the arrow-head stood in the shallower parts,
and a few cardinals on the margin still proudly surveyed
themselves reflected in the water, though the latter, as well
as the pickerel-weed, was now nearly out of blossom. The
snake-head, _Chelone glabra_, grew close to the shore, while a
kind of coreopsis, turning its brazen face to the sun, full and
rank, and a tall dull red flower, _Eupatorium purpureum_, or
trumpet-weed, formed the rear rank of the fluvial array. The
bright blue flowers of the soap-wort gentian were sprinkled here
and there in the adjacent meadows, like flowers which Proserpine
had dropped, and still farther in the fields or higher on the
bank were seen the purple Gerardia, the Virginian rhexia, and
drooping neottia or ladies'-tresses; while from the more distant
waysides which we occasionally passed, and banks where the sun
had lodged, was reflected still a dull yellow beam from the ranks
of tansy, now past its prime.
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