y 



flora*0 Sceptre 



see a Kly do I dare think on the rose, nor plucking roses, risk 

 one lilyward glance. I have a fellow feeling for the Youth 

 who sighed, "Which rose make oiirs, which lily leave and 

 then, as best, recall." What a blessing that we may have 

 both these imperial favourites; flaming rose in her regal 

 beauty today and saintly lily in her perfection tomorrow. 

 It seems that we must use strategy as Flora did when, 



Within the garden's peaceful scene 



Appear'd two lovely foes, 

 Aspiring to the rank of queen. 



The lily and the rose. . . . 



'' Yotus is," she said, " the nobler hue, 

 7 ' And yours the statelier mien; 

 And, till a third surpasses you, 

 I / Let each be deem'd a queen." 



That a flower so beautiful as the lily, a flower springing 

 lightly and naturally in the soil of so many ancient lands, 

 should have become a part of the romance and tradition of 

 nearly every classic people is quite to have been expected, 

 and so we find it intertwined with both history and legend. 

 It has had many names, but then, it has been known and 

 loved and stmg by many peoples. Old Homer himself, the 

 father of all the poets,* relates the experiences of Ulysses in 

 his journey from ancient Troy back to his native Ithaca, and 

 we see the hero stopping with the Lotophagi where he too ate 

 the water-Uly and thereafter forgot friends and coimtry and 

 wished forever to remain in idle bliss in the land of the lotus. 



