PINK 



Rhododendron Rhodora. Heath Family 



A shrub from one to two feet high. Leaves. Oblong ; pale. Flowers. 

 Purplish pink. Calyx. Small. Corolla. Two-lipped; almost without 

 air tube. Stamens. Ten, not protruding. Pistil. One, not protruding. 



" In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, 

 I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 

 Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, 

 To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 

 The purple petals, fallen in the pool, 

 Made the black water with their beauty gay ; 

 Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, 

 And court the flower that cheapens his array. 

 Rhodora ! If the sages ask thee why 

 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 

 Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, 

 Then Beauty is its own excuse for being ; 

 Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose ! 

 I never thought to ask, I never knew ; 

 But in my simple ignorance, suppose 

 The self-same Power that brought me there, brought you. ' 



WILD PINK.f 



Silene Pennsylvanica. Pink Family. 



Stems. Four to eight inches high. Leaves. Those from the root nar- 

 rowly wedge-shaped ; those on the stem lance-shaped, opposite. Flowers.-^ 

 Bright pink ; clustered. Calyx. Five-toothed. Corolla. Of five petals. 

 Stamens. Ten. Pistil. One, with three styles. 



When a vivid cluster of wild pinks gleams from some rocky 

 opening in the May woods, it is difficult to restrain one's eager- 

 ness, for there is something peculiarly enticing in these fresh, 

 vigorous-looking flowers. They are quite unlike most of their 

 fragile contemporaries, for already they seem imbued with the 



* Emerson. 



t Although from their English names the Wild Pink and the Moss Pink 

 would seem to be allied, a reference to their generic and family titles shows 

 them to belong to quite different groups of plants. 



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