Bird watching; Birds; Natural history -- Outdoor books; New England
Having called my record a chronicle, I should be guilty of an almost
wanton disregard of scriptural models if I did not fill it largely with
names, and accordingly I do not hesitate to subjoin a full list of these
my November flowers; omitting Latin titles,--somewhat unwillingly, I
confess,--except where the vernacular is wanting altogether, or else is
more than commonly ambiguous:--creeping buttercup, tall buttercup, field
larkspur, celandine, pale corydalis, hedge mustard, shepherd's-purse,
wild peppergrass, sea-rocket, wild radish, common blue violet, bird-foot
violet, pansy, Deptford pink, common chickweed, larger mouse-ear
chickweed, sand spurrey, knawel, common mallow, herb-robert, storksbill,
red clover, alsyke, white clover, white sweet clover, black medick,
white avens, common cinque-foil, silvery cinque-foil, witch-hazel,
common evening-primrose, smaller evening-primrose, carrot, blue-stemmed
golden-rod, white golden-rod (or silvery-rod), seaside golden-rod,
_Solidago juncea_, _Solidago rugosa_, dusty golden-rod, early
golden-rod, corymbed aster, wavy-leaved aster, heart-leaved aster,
many-flowered aster, _Aster vimineus_, _Aster diffusus_, New York aster,
_Aster puniceus_, narrow-leaved aster, flea-bane, horse-weed,
everlasting, cudweed, cone-flower, mayweed, yarrow, tansy, groundsel,
burdock, Canada thistle, fall dandelion, common dandelion, sow thistle,
Indian tobacco, bell-flower (_Campanula rapunculoides_), fringed
gentian, wild toad-flax, butter and eggs, self-heal, motherwort,
jointweed, doorweed, and ladies' tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_).
Here, then, we have seventy-three species, all but one of which
(_Spiranthes cernua_) are of the class of exogens. Twenty-two orders are
represented, the great autumnal family of the _Compositæ_ naturally
taking the lead, with thirty species (sixteen of them asters and
golden-rods), while the mustard, pink, and pulse families come next,
with five species each. The large and hardy heath family is wanting
altogether. Out of the whole number about forty-three are indigenous.
Witch-hazel is the only shrub, and, as might have been expected, there
is no climbing plant.
In setting down such a list one feels it a pity that so few of the
golden-rods and asters have any specific designation in English. Under
this feeling, I have presumed myself to name two of the golden-rods,
_Solidago Canadensis_ and _Solidago nemoralis_. With us, at all events,
the former is the first of its genus to blossom, and may appropriately
enough wear the title of early golden-rod, while the latter must have
been noticed by everybody for its peculiar grayish, "dusty-miller"
foliage. It has, moreover, an exceptional right to a vernacular name,
being both one of the commonest and one of the showiest of our roadside
weeds. Till something better is proposed, therefore, let us call it the
dusty golden-rod.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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