A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



four or five flowers. I looked at the beautiful 

 specimens with the passing admiration that such 

 wildings always excite, and then I turned to him 

 expectantly to know why he had taken so much 

 trouble to get them. 



&quot; The last beautiful words of the season,&quot; he 

 said, &quot; the daintiest and most eloquent that she 

 ever speaks.&quot; 



&quot; It is certainly a very pretty flower,&quot; I re 

 marked. 



That appeared to vex him a little. &quot; I don t 

 think you know it,&quot; he said. &quot; As a rule, city 

 people do not. The poet Bryant wrote some 

 pretty verses on it. I suppose you know that? &quot; 



I had to confess that I did not. But I have 

 since read them several times. 



&quot; Look here,&quot; said the Doctor. &quot;This is the 

 flower of America. They can t make it grow in 

 China, and there are only some dull hints of it in 

 Europe. Nowhere but in our land does it reach 

 its feminine loveliness, and then it makes the 

 fleur-de-lis meagre and the columbine and the 

 violet washed out.&quot; 



He held the bunch at arm s length in front of 

 him. &quot; Did you ever see branches with such a 

 queenly and pensive curve ? It is the grace of a 

 tall beauty making her first bow to the world. 

 The corolla is a perfect Etruscan vase look 

 at it, lifting four shell-shaped petals beauti 

 fully fringed and of an evasive azure that defies 

 description.&quot; 



&quot;Charming,&quot; I said. &quot;Very like a rustic belle.&quot; 

 188 



