Flowers of Mystery 447 



flower planned so exquisitely, fashioned so slenderly ! 

 The pink symmetry of Kalmia perhaps comes near- 

 est this perfection, with the delicately curved and 

 rounded angles of its bloom." 



In no garden, no matter how modern, could the 

 Fritillaries ever look to me aught but antique and 

 classic. They are as essentially of the past, even to 

 the careless eye, as an antique lamp or brazier. 

 Quaint, too, is the fabric of their coats, like some 

 old silken stuff of paduasoy or sarsenet. All are 

 checkered, as their name indicates. Even the white 

 flowers bear little birthmarks of checkered lines. 

 They were among the famous dancers in my moth- 

 er's garden, and I can tell you that a country dance 

 of Fritillaries in plaided kirtles and green caps is a 

 lively sight. Another name for this queer little 

 flower is Guinea-hen Flower. Gerarde, with his 

 felicity of description, says : 



" One square is of a greenish-yellow colour, the other 

 purple, keeping the same order as well on the back side of 

 the flower as on the inside ; although they are blackish in 

 one square, and of a violet colour in another : in so much 

 that every leafe (of the flower) seemeth to be the feather of 

 a Ginnie hen, whereof it took its name." 



A strong personal trait of the Fritillaries (for I 

 may so speak of flowers 1 love) is their air of mys- 

 tery. They mean something I cannot fathom ; they 

 look it, but cannot tell it. Fritillaries were a flower 

 of significance even in Elizabethan days. They were 

 made into little buttonhole posies, and, as Park- 

 inson says, " worn abroad by curious lovers of these 



