CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE GUERNSEY LILY. 



The Guernsey Lily may not be known to all my 

 readers ; but those who have seen it will admit its 

 claim to rank with the most beautiful of that ele- 

 gant family. Rising in a slender stem of reddish 

 hue, without the slightest appearance of any thing 

 resembling a leaf, it shoots up, exhibiting a dull- 

 looking sort of blossom, from which, in time, es- 

 cape as from a cell, numerous other buds, all 

 wearing the same dusky aspect. So far, all is 

 unpromising enough ; but on a sudden, out bursts 

 such a display of beauty, as the eye cannot soon 

 weary of. From the top of the single stem, 

 flower-stalks branch off, to the number of eight, 

 each bearing a lily of the most glowing rose- 

 colour, and rivalling in form any production that 

 our parterre or conservatory can bring to compete 

 the prize of elegance. Each flower would be a 

 star with six points, did not the graceful curl of 

 *he petals bending backwards, change its character; 

 and when I contrast the splendid magnificence of 



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