Note 15 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

4. The whole of September, and half, if not the whole of October, are the finest months in Pensylvania, for the preceding ones are too hot. But these represent our July and half of August. The greatest part of the plants are in flower in September, and many do not begin to open their flowers before the latter end of this month. I make no doubt that the goodness of the season, which is enlivened by a clear sky, and a tolerably hot sun-shine, greatly contributes towards this last effort of Flora. Yet though these plants come out so late, they are quite ripe before the middle of October. But I am not able to account for their coming up so late in autumn, and I rather ask, why do not the Centaurea Jacea, the Gentiana, Amarella and Centaurium of Linnæus, and the common golden rod, or Solidago Virgaurea flower before the end of summer? or why do the common noble liverwort, or Anemone Hepatica, the wild violets (Viola martia, Linn.) the mezereon (Daphne Mezereum, Linn.) and other plants shew their flowers so early in spring? It has pleased the Almighty Creator to give to them this disposition. The weather at Philadelphia during these months, is shewn by my meteorological tables. I have taken the greatest care in my observations, and have always avoided putting the thermometer into any place where the sun could shine upon it, or where he had before heated the wall by his beams; for in those cases my observations would certainly not have been exact. The weather during our September and October is too well known to want an explanation.15