62 SHARP EYES 



The "painted -cup" is perhaps the brightest touch of 

 color among the whole wild bouquet. Even the cardi- 

 nal-flower, its only rival, must yield to its intenser glow. 

 A cluster of the flowering plants is dazzling in its brill- 

 iancy ; and yet when we pay our tribute to the " flow- 

 er," we are giving credit where it is not due. 



The actual flower of the "painted-cup" is an insignif- 

 icant greenish tube -like cloistered affair that is rarely 

 detected by the ordinary observer, being guarded by a 

 gorgeously attired retinue of leaves that acquire a dis- 

 tinction they do not deserve. The " cup " is composed 

 of many flowers, each waited upon by an attendant leaf, 

 suggesting a three -lobed cape, which seems to have 

 been dipped to its centre in the most vivid scarlet 

 paint. It is the accumulation of these which gives the 

 color effect to the plant, and they are mere leaves in 

 masquerade. Bryant calls them " bright beakers," and 

 pictures them as " holding the dew for fairies." But it 

 is a cup only in general outline, and would prove a 

 leaky " beaker," although it has managed to hold its 

 secret pretty securely from many of us for years. 



