252 BLUE TO PURPLE 



refrain from all attempts to gather it. This '* little sister of 

 the stately blue Plag " only blooms for a single day, and each 

 morning new buds open to replace the fallen petals of yes- 

 terday. Its flowers consist of six translucent purplish-blue 

 segments, veined with a darker hue and tipped by a bristle 

 from a notch. These grow on thread-like stalks between two 

 very long narrow bracts, the lower one of which is usually 

 twice as long as the upper one. In the centre of each blos- 

 som is a small patch of yellow, and the style, which is long 

 and protruding, is tipped by a conspicuous three-cleft stigma. 

 The name Blue-eyed Grass is most appropriate to this 

 plant, for its leaves are certainly quite grass-like, being long 

 and slender, and nearly all spring up from the densely tufted 

 base, together with the stems, which latter are flattened on 

 both sides. The flowers are very like soft purplish-blue eyes 

 with their dilated yellow "pupils," as they 



" Gently gaze toward the sky, 

 Answering the azure blue on high." 



Another poet sings thus of the Blue-eyed Grass : 



" Blue-eyed grass in the meadow, 

 And yarrow blooms on the hill, 

 Cat-tails that rustle and whisper, 

 And winds that are never still ; 



" Blue-eyed grass in the meadow, 

 A linnet's nest near by, 

 Blackbirds carolling clearly 



Somewhere between earth and sky. 



" Blue-eyed grass in the meadow, 

 And the laden bee's low hum, 

 Milkweeds all by the roadside, 

 To tell us summer is come." 



