June and Early July 



flowers scattered about the upper part of 

 the slender stems. 



It is Richard Jefferies who finds fault 

 with the artists for the profuseness with 

 which they scattered flowers upon their 

 canvases; but, for myself, I recall no 

 painted meadow more thickly strewn 

 with blossoms than the actual one which 

 stretches before me. It seems to me that 

 the fault to-day lies more in the quality 

 of the painting than in the quantity of 

 the flowers. 



It is in the face of modern tradition 

 that one wishes to see these indicated 

 with some fidelity and tenderness; yet 

 I cannot but feel that the old Italians — 

 Fra Angelico, for example — caught bet- 

 ter the spirit of the fields of Paradise 

 when he starred them with separate, 

 gemlike flowers, than do our modern men 

 that of our own meadows, which they 

 dash with reckless splashes of color, ex- 

 pecting the leafless, stemless blotches to 

 56 



