FLOWERS OF THE SEA. "9 
~Tirelessly she worked, matching the skill her 
fingers had acquired in netting of seines with 
a quenchless desire to. preserve a semblance of 
her fair but perishable treasure. 
Finally there dawned a morning when the 
plant lay black and withered. All the beauty 
which had held the two hearts by its magic 
was gone; but im the hand of the maiden lay 
its delicate counterpart, woven of the finest of 
threads. | 
The little sea plant which, it is said, actu- 
ally furnished designs for the original Venetian 
point lace, the netting of which the women of 
Burano and of Venice were anciently so fa- 
mous, has since been known as mermaid’s lace. 
