The Charm of Color 247 



bloom of spring to the gay berry of autumn, he knows 

 all beautiful things that grow, and where they grow, 

 for hundreds of miles around his home. 



I speak of him in this connection because he has 

 acquired through his woodland life a wonderful 

 power of distinguishing flowers at great distance 

 with absolute accuracy. Especially do his eyes have 

 the power of detecting those rose-lilac tints which 

 are characteristic of our rarest, our most delicate wild 

 flowers, and which I always designate to myself as 

 Arethusa color. He brought me this June a royal 

 gift — a great bunch of wild fringed Orchids, another 

 of Calopogon, and one of Arethusa. What a color 

 study these three made ! At the time their lilac- 

 rose tints seemed to me far lovelier than any pure 

 rose colors. In those wild princesses were found 

 every tone of that lilac-rose from the faint blush 

 like the clouds of a warm sunset, to a glow on the lip 

 of the Arethusa, like the crimson glow of Mullein 

 Pink. 



My friend of the meadow and wildwood had 

 gathered that morning a glorious harvest, over two 

 thousand stems of Pogonia, from his own hidden 

 spot, which he has known for forty years and from 

 whence no other hand ever gathers. For a little 

 handful of these flower heads he easily obtains a 

 dollar. He has acquired gradually a regular round 

 of customers, for whom he gathers a successive har- 

 vest of wild flowers from Pussy Willows and Hepat- 

 ica to winter berries. It is not easily earned money 

 to stand in heavy rubber boots in marsh mud and 

 water reaching nearly to the waist, but after all 



