TIKlbcn Grass is Green 



such slender stems that they were all a tremble, al- 

 though not a breath of air was stirring. This was 

 the Nemopanthes, and I was on the point of call- 

 ing attention to it, when Beatrice how like a 

 girl! screamed "Oo-oo-ooh!" that brought a 

 vision of a horned owl. I started at the sound, 

 and saw her pointing to a little pond by the creek- 

 side that was thick-grown with lotus. I did not 

 wonder at her wild antics. It was a beautiful 

 sight. Hundreds of huge circular leaves, like up- 

 raised umbrellas, covered the spot, and above them 

 were superb pink flowers. To think that here, in 

 a Jersey meadow, the sacred lotus of the East 

 should be flourishing without the care of man ! 

 Of course we pulled in shore and examined the 

 flowers more closely. Some one doubtless had 

 planted a lotus tuber here, or it had stranded here 

 after some freshet. It matters not, but the musk- 

 rats had not found it out, and now in the bottom 

 of the pool was a network of roots that could defy 

 the destructive rodents. 



Once upon a time the native lotus flourished 

 here, and even was cultivated by the Indians, for 

 both root and fruit are edible; but the plant has 

 long been extinct in the neighborhood. 



While we were looking at the splendid flowers 

 a humming bird came near, and buried himself in 

 the golden heart of each flower, and emerging 

 shook from his wings a perfect cloud of yellow 

 dust. Then with a shrill squeak he passed to new 



