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In the moist places the gentian uncurled its blue fringes; purple asters and gay Joe Pye waved their colors by the roadside; tall primroses put their yellow bonnets on, and peeped over the brooks to see themselves; and the dusty pods of the milkweed were bursting with their silky fluffs, the spinning of the long summer.

How many of us, unused to the task of careful observation, can tell the number of the musk-mallow's petals, or mark on paper the depth of fringe on a gentian, or match from a series of dyed silks the hues of a common buttercup? Drawing and painting sharpen the eye, and make the fingers its trained and ready servants.

The first story I ever heard the child tell was one of those which seemed to hold comfort and cheer for herself or for humble little souls like her. It was a story of the closed gentian, the title of which she announced, as she always did, loudly, and with an amusing little air of self-satisfaction. The Shet-up Posy Once there was a posy.

Yes, not our sturgeon," there the judge smacked his tongue and smiled, upon which his nose took a sniff at its usual snuff-box, "such as our Mirgorod shops sell us. I ate no herrings, for, as you know, they give me heart-burn; but I tasted the caviare very fine caviare, too! There's no doubt it, excellent! Then I drank some peach-brandy, real gentian.

Bitter or saline tonics should be administered in the feed when necessary. The following formula is useful as a digestive tonic: Sodium bicarbonate and sodium sulfate, one pound of each, powdered gentian one-half pound, and oil meal five pounds. A small handful of this mixture may be given with the feed two or three times daily.

The administration of minimum doses of these drugs, and repeating the dose after a short interval, is preferable to large doses. Alkaline tonics are also indicated. The following mixture may be given: bicarbonate of soda, sulfate of soda and common salt, eight ounces of each, and powdered gentian and sulfate of iron, four ounces of each.

Have you ever found the fringed gentian? "Just before the snows, There came a purple creature That lavished all the hill: And summer hid her forehead, And mockery was still. The frosts were her condition: The Tyrian would not come Until the North evoked her, 'Creator, shall I bloom?"

Then come the languid poppy and the prim little 4 o'clock, the marigold, the sweet pea, and later the dahlia and the many-tinted chrysanthemum to mark the day's decline. Lastly the goldenrod, the aster and the gentian, tell us it is evening time, and night and frost are close at hand. The rose hour has struck already for '93.

But the tribes went on a buffalo hunt in July and killed plenty of meat. All that northern world was then clothed in vivid verdure. Honeysuckles and wild grapevines made the woods fragrant. The gentian, which jealously closes its blue-fringed cup from the human eye, grew close to the lakes.

The first real, tangible sign of the spring that is to be, the first voice from the southland telling us that spring is coming up the valleys. There is no mistaking the brilliant blue, the most beautiful blue in the Iowa year, unless it be the blue of the fringed gentian in the fall; and the soft reddish, earthy breast enhances the beauty of the brilliant back.