Some Summer Days in Iowa Part 3

It is worth while to spend a little time with the friendly golden-rod which spreads all over upland and lowland almost as generous as the suns.h.i.+ne. To many of us one stalk of golden-rod looks much like another, but a very little study will readily enable us to distinguish between the different species and will add wonderfully to its interest and charm. There is the tall, smooth stemmed golden-rod, with saw toothed leaves, except near the base and ample pyramids of medium-sized cl.u.s.ters of blossoms; this is the solidago serotina, or late golden-rod. A similar golden-rod, but with hairy stems and smaller flower cl.u.s.ters is the solidago Canadensis or Canada golden-rod. Both these grow in the bottoms anywhere near the creek.

Along the moist clay banks the elm-leaved golden-rod shows its tall stem with the leaves which give the plant its distinctive name, surmounted by several threadlike spreading branches strung with little bits of leaves and cl.u.s.ters of yellow blossoms at the ends, as if the slender, curving, green branches had been dipped in gold dust. On the same slopes may usually be found the zig-zag or broad-leaved golden-rod, with leaves as broad as the palm of a lady's hand and little wand-like cl.u.s.ters of blossoms, several of them from the axil of each leaf. This plant is called the zig-zag golden-rod because its stem often turns first one way and then the other, as if it hadn't made up its mind which way to grow. Higher up on the dry rocky banks is the gray or field golden-rod, whose small leaves are covered with grayish down and whose rather short stem is topped by a flattish pyramid of brilliant yellow flowers. This is one of the early golden-rods, but it lasts well into the fall. Another handsome species which is fairly common is the solidago rigida, or hard-leaved golden-rod, whose leaves are thick, rough and fairly broad, the lower ones sometimes a foot long, and whose flower cl.u.s.ters form a broad flat top. Each cl.u.s.ter is very large, containing twenty-five or thirty flowers if you care to pull one to pieces and count them. One stem will have several hundred of these flower cl.u.s.ters and each cl.u.s.ter contains twenty-five flowers on an average, a fine example of Nature's wealth and bounty. Perhaps the most handsome species of all, here in Iowa, is the solidago speciosa, or the showy golden-rod, which sometimes grows five, six or seven feet high in rich soil, with a stout, smooth stem and big, smooth leaves, the lower ones broadly oval and sometimes from four to ten inches long and one to four inches wide. The Missouri golden-rod is a slender and dainty species with long, narrow leaves, their margins very rough, as you may tell by drawing your fingers along them.

There are about eighty-five different species of golden-rod in the United States, but the task of naming them all that grow in one locality is not difficult for the nature-lover. The above list is practically all that grow hereabouts. And it is so with the asters.

There are about two hundred fifty species of asters, and most of them are found in North America. But usually a dozen or fifteen only are to be found in the average locality. Here, among others, may be found the beautiful aster Novae-Anglia, or New England aster with blue or rose-colored rays and a yellow center, the blossoms fluffy and large, often fully two inches across. In some parts of the east it is called "Farewell to Summer," but it may usually be found in the latter part of August. This year it was in full bloom as early as August 21.

Another beautiful aster to be found on prairies and dry banks is the aster sericeus, or silvery aster, with silvery-white silky leaves and large, violet blue heads, the rays sometimes two-thirds of an inch long. One of the earliest and most common of the asters is the aster sagittifolius, or arrow-leaved aster, with white or pale blue flowers, and its companion, the heart-leaved aster. More beautiful is the lovely smooth or blue aster, the aster laevis, with clasping, oblong tapering leaves and sky-blue heads, sometimes violet, fully an inch across. The aster multiflorus, or dense flowered aster, is bushy with small rigid, crowded leaves, and a mult.i.tude of small heads crowded on the spreading branches, the rays generally white like big b.a.l.l.s of snow. The aster salicifolius has a slender stem much branched above, long and narrow leaves, with violet, violet-purple or rarely white rays, and aster prenanthoides or crooked stem aster, may be told by its zigzag stem, its oblong, saw-toothed leaves and its violet rays.

Two other beautiful species found hereabouts are the aster azureus, which blooms from August until after frost, with a slender but stiff and roughish stem, and many bright violet-blue flowers with 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 cl.u.s.ter 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 p.r.o.nounced from now until October. The amber cl.u.s.ters 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 cl.u.s.ters of the sweet elder, which were so beautiful in July and early August, have developed into ample cl.u.s.ters of juicy berries which bring memories of the wine that grandmother used to make. Flocks of robins are feeding greedily on the abundant wild cherries. Thickets of panicled dogwood are feeding stations for other migrants; already the crimson fruit-stalks have been stripped of half their white berries.

These native fruits are so many and so varied, they make the walk a constant delight. Each plant is a revelation. Who ever saw for the first time the huge cl.u.s.ters of fruit hanging from the wild spikenard on the face of the cliff and did not thrill with the charm of a great discovery? Each cl.u.s.ter of ruby, winey berries is as large as a hickory-nut and the cl.u.s.ters are aggregated upon stalks so as to resemble huge bunches of grapes. For contrast there are the little bunches of whitish berries on the low-growing false spikenard; they are speckled with reddish and gray dots as if they might be cowbird's eggs in miniature. Jack-in-the-pulpits show club-shaped bunches of scarlet berries here and there among the gra.s.ses. On the wooded slopes there are the white fruits of the baneberry on its quaintly-shaped red stalks, the pretty fruit cl.u.s.ters of the moonseed and the smilax. The scattered berries of the green-brier will be black in winter, but their September hue is a bronze green of a delicate shade which artists might envy. It will take another month to ripen the drupes of the black-haw into their blue-black beauty; now they are green on one side and red on the other, like a ripening apple. It's a fine education to know just which fruits you may nibble and which you must not eat. Red-stalked cl.u.s.ters of black berries hang from the vines of the Virginia creeper among leaves just touched with the hectic flame that tells of their pa.s.sing, all too soon. At the sign of the sumac, tall torches of garnet berries rise. Down the bank, the bittersweet sends trailing arms jeweled with orange-colored pods just opening to display the scarlet arils within. Crimsoning capsules give the burning bush its name; this may well have been the bush at which Moses was directed to take off his sandals because he was treading on holy ground. Large, triangular membranaceous pods hang thickly from the white-lined branches of the bladdernut. Cup-like leaves of the honeysuckle hold bunches of scarlet berries. So on and on the creek leads to new beauties of color and form, new delights for taste and smell. Every plant has some excuse for its being, something of the loveliness and fragrance of the summer stored in its fruits. There is a lesson for the mind and the soul to be gathered with the fruit of these shrubs and vines. Summer still works with tireless energy. She has done with the leaf and the bud and the blossom; all her remaining strength is being spent in filling the fruits before the night of the white death comes.

Since the first of the month the little catkins have been creeping from the twigs of the hazel, and their tender, spring-like green is quite as interesting as the ripening bunches of nuts. These little catkins will hang short and stiff all winter, but when the ice goes out of the rivers and the first frog croaks in the springtime, they will lengthen, soften and grow yellow with their abundant pollen.

Squirrels are busy among the acorns and the hickory nuts; the split husks and sh.e.l.ls are thickly strewn beneath the trees. Red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.rs are gathering acorns and pus.h.i.+ng them behind the flaky bark of the wild cherry for use during the late fall; sometimes a little family of the redheads remains all winter. Chipmunks are carrying acorns to their granaries; they dash into their holes with a squeak as if in derision at your slow-footed manner of walking.

Sumac flames from the fence corners and lights up the country lanes.

It is the first of the shrubs to announce in fiery placards the coming spectacle of the pa.s.sing of the summer. Next is the Virginia creeper,--see where it flames up the wild cherry tree, scattering crimson leaves to the gra.s.s beneath. Once in a day's journey along the creek one may find a small red maple. In the middle of its foliage is a small, flame-like spot which grows larger day by day. Gradually some of the other maples catch the color fire, first a little soft maple by the sh.o.r.e of a muddy bayou, next a small sugar maple on the rocky slope. The great spectacle does not come until October, but the placards announcing it grow more numerous and vivid day by day.

Blackberry leaves are splashed with crimson; daily the blood-red banner of the sumac grows larger and more striking. Walnuts and hickories begin to lose their yellow leaves; patches of yellow appear on the elms and the lindens; though the ma.s.s of the foliage remains until October, many leaves flutter down daily, and it is possible to see twice as far into the thicket as in June.

_"The wine of life keeps oozing, drop by drop; The leaves of life keep falling, one by one."_

Flocks of grackles spend their days in the cornfields which run down to the creek bottom and their nights amid the wild rice and the rushes and willows in the swamp. In the timber fringes and the broad bottoms along the creek you get glimpses of the catbird feasting on the grapes and the wild plums; the brown thrasher and the woodthrush, wholly silent now; the little house wren who has lost her chatter; the vireos and the orioles, the wood pewee, the crested fly catcher and the kingbird. They all seem to be going southward. There are a few nests and young birds in the early part of the month--the yellow-billed cuckoo, the Savannah sparrow, the goldfinch. But these are exceptions to the general rule.

Little flocks of warblers flit among the tree tops and the bushy margin of ponds near the creek will soon be alive with the myrtle warblers--as numerous as English sparrows in a barn-yard. In the night time you may hear the "tseep" of the warblers as they wing their way swiftly towards the southland. Sometimes there is the tinkling sound of the bob-o-link, also flying in the night time, and in the morning there may be a flock of them in some meadow, leisurely getting their breakfast after their all-night flight, chattering to each other in the tinkling tones which are unlike any other song-talk in bird land.

The humming bird, the swallows, the purple martins, the chimney swifts, also seem to be a-pilgriming. Gradually you become conscious that all of them are flying southward, always down the stream and never up. The first keen blasts up in the northland have given them a warning and they are going steadily, happily, but for the most part silently, on down the stream, giving rare beauty to these halcyon days of late summer; on past the farthest point of your vision, where the silver gray mist softens the outline of the forest-crowned headlands, and lavender shadows hang gently across the valleys; always on and on towards the land where all is light and life and where summer ever abides in beauty. You look up and see flocks of cowbirds flying in the same direction and still larger flocks of night hawks, hundreds of them in the air at once. Like the queens on the mournful barge of the fallen King Arthur, their mission is to escort the dying summer floating down, always down

_"To the island valley of Avilion; Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery billows crown'd with summer sea._

You can climb to the highest cliff and look down to where the creek valley blends with the valley of the river, standing as did Sir Bedivere where he

_... saw Straining his eyes, beneath an arch of hand, Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the king Down the long water opening on the deep, Somewhere far off, pa.s.s on, and on, and go From less and less and vanish into light."_

The summer which has just been escorted down the valley shall come again. You remember that even the mourners after the pa.s.sing of Arthur, when the first keen pangs of sorrow were over, took heart again. This was the verse they carved on his tomb:

_"Hic jacet Arthurus Rex Quondam Rex, que Futurus."_

And the soul of the summer cannot die. In many a grateful heart it lives forever as a gentle memory of loveliness and sweetness and of inspiration to higher and better things. Neither shall it lose its individuality; for it has bestowed its peculiar charms, its own enlargements of knowledge, its rare enrichments of faith and hope; they were fuller and richer than those of any other summer. As the senses reach farther into the science of each summer, and the mind lifts the veil of Isis and sees a little farther into the harmony of her purposes, so the heart draws closer to the heart of the summer and receives a larger benediction, an essence of immortality, an ambrosial food richer and more real than that which sustained the ancient G.o.ds.

And herein is hope for the race. It cannot be but that each summer, with its recollections of walks and talks with parents and friends in the summers long gone by, with its sweetest memories of life and love, with its mighty tides of growth and splendor, its wistful dreamy skies in these last days of its loveliness--it cannot be but that each summer warms many a heart with the thrill divine, lifts many a life to a plane of fairer vision and n.o.bler purpose, instills a desire for a life more in keeping with its own strength and cleanliness and beauty.

So does each summer help the world onward to

_"That far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves."_