SPRING DAWN 



this spathe will loosen a bit and let visit- 

 ing insects enter for the fertilization of 

 the blossom. But in that cold air of early 

 morning it was wrapped tight. 



I have seen orchids tenderly nurtured 

 in conservatories that had not half the 

 honest beauty of this flower. Neither to 

 me is the odor of the derided skunk-cab- 

 bage more unpleasant than that of many 

 a coddled and admired garden bloom 

 a dahlia, for instance. Yet I smiled in 

 derision on catching the first whiff of it, 

 and so do we all. If the symplocarpus 

 cared it would be too bad, but it does 

 not. Unconscious of its caddish critics, 

 it blooms serenely on in the swamps and 

 takes the tiny insects into its confidence 

 and its hood, and adds a bit of rich color 

 to the place when no other blossom dares. 

 And even as I looked at it the sun slipped 

 out of the low band of dark horizon- 

 39 



