The Charm of Color 235 



and I think it must have been the flower sung by 

 Leigh Hunt: 



" The nice-leaved lesser Lilies, 

 Shading like detected light 

 Their little green-tipt lamps of white." 



The illustration on page 234 shows the graceful 

 growth of the flower and its exquisitely precise little 

 green-dotted petals, but it has not caught its lumin- 

 ous whiteness, which seems almost of phosphores- 

 cent brightness in each little flower. 



The Star of Bethlehem is a plant in which the 

 white and green of the leaf is curiously repeated in 

 the flower. Gardeners seldom admit this flower 

 now to their gardens, it so quickly crowds out every- 

 thing else ; it has become on Long Island nothing 

 but a weed. The high-growing Star of Bethlehem 

 is a pretty thing. A bed of it in my sister's garden 

 is shown on page 237. 



It is curious that when all agree that green flowers 

 have no beauty and scant charm, that a green flower 

 should have been one of the best-loved flowers of 

 my home garden. But this love does not come 

 from any thought of the color or beauty of the 

 flower, but from association. It was my mother's 

 favorite, hence it is mine. It was her favorite be- 

 cause she loved its clear, pure, spicy fragrance. This 

 ever present and ever welcome scent which pervades 

 the entire garden if leaf or flower of the loved 

 Ambrosia be crushed, is curious and characteristic, 

 a true " ambrosiack odor," to use Ben Jonson's 

 words. 



