Blooming of Flowers in October
This autumn has some oddly unseasonable features. In the middle of October, a rarely late date, those beautiful and in many districts rare butterflies, the clouded yellows, were pairing on Devonshire commons. In my garden the fragrant guelder came into full flower on or about October 15th. One expects a few rather diffident flowers, not fully scented, to open in December, but a full and very fragrant blooming in October is a rarity, and this bush is quite certainly a forerunner of next spring, not a belated relic of last summer. A few apple-blossoms have appeared, but they, of course, belong to the departed season. I do not remember ever to have seen the grass look greener or grow more lustily at this season, and it has been full enough of the stuff of spring to keep the milk flowing and to fatten the bullocks without further food. As to the birds, even the departing migrants have sung much more freely, I should say, than is their wont. Incidentally, it has been lately shown that arriving migrants, including the sweetly-voiced redwing, quite commonly indulge in autumnal song.
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