VII. THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM. I 3 I 



infinitely dear as the bringer of light, ruby, white 

 and gold ; the three colours of the Day, with no 

 hue of shade in it. Therefore I take it on the 

 coins of St. George for the symbol of the splendour 

 or light of heaven, which is dearest where humblest. 

 2. Now these great two orders — of which the types 

 are the thyme and the daisy — you are to remember 

 generally as the ' Herbs ' and the ' Sunflowers.' 

 You are not to call them Lipped flowers, nor Com- 

 posed flowers ; because the first is a vulgar term ; 

 for when you once come to be able to draw a lip, 

 or, in noble duty, to kiss one, you will know that 

 no other flower in earth is like that : and the 

 second is an indefinite term ; for a foxglove is 

 as much a ' composed ' flower as a daisy ; but it 

 is composed in the shape of a spire, instead of 

 the shape of the sun. And again a thistle, which 

 common botany calls a composed flower, as well as 

 a daisy, is composed in quite another shape, being, 

 on the whole, bossy instead of flat ; and of another 

 temper, or composition of mind, also, being con- 

 nected in that respect with butterburs, and a vast 

 company of rough, knotty, half-black or brown, and 

 generally unluminous — flowers I can scarcely call 

 them — and weeds I will not, — creatures, at all events, 

 in nowise to be gathered under the general name 

 ' Composed,' with the stars that crown Chaucer's 



