Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-29
NATURE In SUMMERTIME
(Copyright, 1900
BY D. C. PEATTIE

In Summer, the woods are almost as
silent, where bird songs are concerned,
as in the dead of Winter, If you will
except the tiresome wheedling of the
pewee, which always reminds me of
the sort of visitor who thinks you like
to have him or her run in often and
chirrup endleSSly, and can never make
up his Cor herr mind to go.
But there are other sounds that are
not exactly singing, such as the drum
ming Of the woodpeckers, and the
noises (science forbids me to call them
insect has q voice; at least none,
think, sing with their threats, but the
whir Of the grasshopper, the saving of
the katydid, and the STIMULATION OF
Master Cricket in the grass at twilight
these are sounds of Summer, and
almost music, too. The click bugs, too,
make q swapping sound with their
wings; the wood beetles tick of time
in their mine-shaftS in the wood of
old country houses. Frogs, now, are
at the height of their vocalizing. and,
1t must be admitted, so are mosquitoes,
though in what way they make the
sound I have forgotten. No one, so
far as know, has ever written the
story of the mosquitoes war-cry-and
q dread war-cry it has been for suf-
fering mankind. Time was when yell
low fever, Summer after Summer, ragged
in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia
and even New York and Boston. The
yellow fever mosquito is still present
in Boston. I killed one on my hand
at one of those outdoor suburban
operettas that local talent gives. That
he was infected with yellow fever, in
this day and age, is unlikely. Still, l
saw him standing on his head to bite,
as his tribe invariably does.
Cardinal Flower.
You will look long before you find a
brighter shout of color than the cardl-
nal flower. 1t is as torrid as the heat
OF Summer days itself. Nothing, 1t
seems, but something savage and troplc
that slumbers at the heart of Summer
| weather could bring such gorgeous
creature into being. But either be-
cause the poor flower Is no sooner
seen than picked, or because beauty Is
most beautiful when a scarce COM
modify, the cardinal flower Is any.
thing but common nowadays around
the District of Columbia. 1t likes
shaded, mucky ground, around ponoS
and rivers, and there you must pene-
| trate, amidst mosquitoes and the pos
sibility of snakes, to find 1t.
Commoner is the Great Lobena'
which is cousin species, and TINS
gorgeous plant is as blue as the CAROL
nal flower Is scarlet. Along almost any
stream, a little outside of town. you
may see its blue spires burning. loveiy
as larkspur, and free for all TO al
mire.
These are the two aristocrats OF the
family. A humble little drab OF the
same genus Lobelia Is the lnolan
Tobacco, whose watery lilac flowers
and inflated pods attract no attention.
But this plant is worth knowing, ior
1t Is q deadly poison. the more so De.
cause nothing about the appearance OF
the plant betrays It's wickedness, as the
rank odor gives away the Jhhsoh
Weeds secret.
Dragon Fly at Work.
In the brook, in the blue pool under
the overhangnig willows, while the not
sunlight burned the tree tops, ana tne
light Summer breeze stirred the sur
face Of the pool, I saw o dragon ny
ak Wurk-kh0 0xaly W0Tk, 80 3af Is