AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS 11 



book on wild gardening, we must not forget the 

 rhexia. 



Our seacoast flowers are probably more brilliant 

 in color than the same flowers in the interior. I 

 thought the wild rose on the Massachusetts coast 

 deeper tinted and more fragrant than those I was 

 used to. The steeple-bush, or hardback, had more 

 color, as had the rose gerardia and several other 

 plants. 



But when vivid color is wanted, what can surpass 

 or equal our cardinal-flower? There is a glow about 

 this flower as if color emanated from it as from a 

 live coal. The eye is baffled, and does not seem to 

 reach the surface of the petal; it does not see the 

 texture or material part as it does in other flowers, 

 but rests in a steady, still radiance. It is not so 

 much something colored as it is color itself. And 

 then the moist, cool, shady places it affects, usu- 

 ally where it has no floral rivals, and where the 

 large, dark shadows need just such a dab of fire ! 

 Often, too, we see it double, its reflected image in 

 some dark pool heightening its effect. I have never 

 found it with its only rival in color, the monarda 

 or bee-balm, a species of mint. Farther north, the 

 cardinal-flower seems to fail, and the monarda takes 

 its place, growing in similar localities. One may 

 see it about a mountain spring, or along a meadow 

 brook, or glowing in the shade around the head of 

 a wild mountain lake. It stands up two feet high 

 or more, and the flowers show like a broad scarlet 

 cap. 



