8 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



tiful little plants and animals that live 

 in the bayous. Here main- interesting 

 plants grow and birds build their nests, 

 lay their beautiful eggs, the sight of 

 which so thrills the heart of a boy, yes, 

 and we never get over it. Then in the 

 barren rocks that surround the valley 

 are remains of animals and plants that 

 lived in the ages that are gone. Doubt- 

 less many of them never yet seen by 

 man. 



Soon after noon, we started down 

 White River for the. strange beasts of 

 the past, the remains of which we had 

 been collecting seemed calling me from 

 the desert and we returned to our 

 work with renewed interest. 



The Personality of Flowers 



BY WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY, LL. D. 

 BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R. L 



That to flowers we attribute certain 

 human characteristics is a fact as old, 

 probably, as observation itself. Thus 

 we speak of the pompous and aristo- 

 cratic tulip, the stately lily, the tremb- 

 ling, shy anemone, the coy violet, the 

 modest rose. Even trees come in for 

 this featural description, as the robust 

 oak, the tough, and subtle hickory, the 

 weeping willow, the aspiring pine and 

 the clinging ivy. 



Some of these attributes have become 

 fixed in our literature and are the gen- 

 eral property of all writers. Others 

 have a more personal character and are 

 applied by the particular essayist or 

 poet. By his use of terms we guess 

 something of his own nature. 



To the writer of this article, the 

 terms laughing and frolicksome have 

 ever seemed to belong of right and 

 unchallenged to the liverwort or hepat- 

 ica. As these blue eyed flowers revel 

 down a hillside, they appear to be 

 engaged in a wild but innocent romp 

 now hiding behind rocks, now peeping 

 out from a cover of brown leaves or 

 gaily whispering in some sunny corner. 

 It is no use saying they are uncon- 

 scious; their every glance shows that 

 they are enjoying a holiday. For this 

 were they created. 



Never, for a moment, does hepatica 

 claim to be other than it is to assume 

 a livery other than its own, or to feign 



a sobriety it does not feel. If there be 

 a genuine flower it is this. As inno- 

 cent as lily of the valley, it is somehow 

 more lovable, more loving. One is 

 quite sure that it reciprocates his affec- 

 tion. 



The bloodroot, which is equally com- 

 mon, robed in pure white as it is, is 

 involved in mystery What is the 

 tragedy that attends it? Why this 

 ensanguined root which it tries in vain 

 to conceal? Must its dread secret al- 

 ways remain unknown? 



That quaker ladies or bluets have a 

 strong personality every one must 

 have observed. Note first their gre- 

 gariousness, how they at first gather 

 in little chatty groups and then, 

 as at a given signal, all run into a vast 

 throng. It is as if they had caucuses 

 and primary meetings and then a gen- 

 eral convention where, let us hope, thev 

 do not quarrel. 



According to one's mood, skunk cab- 

 bages appear either as solemn, hooded 

 monks or as uncanny kobolds or gob- 

 lins dire. Their robes are too rich for 

 actual hermits. Jack-in-the-pulpit is, 

 of course, an accepted priest. Observe 

 his tonsured poll. I have fancies some- 

 times that I could even follow his ser- 

 mon and profit thereby. 



Even botanists, who are by no means 

 all poets, though old Linnaeus and 

 others have had a lively fancy, have 

 conceded to the pond lilv a mystic 

 origin. Is our common one not, in 

 older manuals at least, known as Nym- 

 phaea? Do we not all feel jarred to 

 have that name transferred to the 

 coarse and evil-smelling spatter-dock? 

 It was an accident, some say, that be- 

 stowed the name Euryale, "queen of 

 the furies" on the superb water lily of 

 the Amazons, and a fortunate chance 

 which transfers it to Victoria, "our late 

 most gracious queen and lady." 



Tt was not their gorgeous scarlet 

 alone, surely, which suggested the 

 name of cardinal flower to our splendid 

 American lobelia. It always wears the 

 stately pose of a prince of the church. 

 When a number are together, we feel 

 that they are concerned in an impor- 

 tant conclave and that whatever they 

 vote or for whomsoever their function. 

 is heaven-directed. There can be no 



