AMONG THE WILD-FLOWERS 11 



of the open fields known to me farther inland. 

 When we come to improve our wild garden, as 

 recommended by Mr. Robinson in his book on 

 wild gardening, we must not forget the rhexia. 



Our seacoast flowers are probably more bril- 

 liant in color than the same flowers in the inte- 

 rior. I thought the wild rose on the Massa- 

 chusetts coast deeper tinted and more fragrant 

 than those I was used to. The steeple-bush, 

 or hardback, had more color, as had the rose- 

 gerardia and several other plants. 



But when vivid color is wanted, what can 

 surpass or equal our cardinal-flower? There h 

 a glow about this flower as if color emanated 

 from it as from a live coal. The eye is baflled 

 and does not seem to reach the surface of the 

 petal; it does not see the texture or material 

 part as it does in other flowers, but rests in a 

 steady, still radiance. It is not so much some- 

 thing colored as it is color itself. And then 

 the moist, cool, shady places it aff'ects, usually 

 where it has no floral rivals, and where the 

 large, dark shadows need just such a dab of fire. 

 Often, too, we see it double, its reflected image 

 in some dark pool heightening its effect. I 

 have never found it with its only rival in color, 

 the monarda or bee-balm, a species of mint. 

 Farther north, the cardinal-flower seems to fail, 

 and the monarda takes its place, growing in 

 similar localities. One may see it about a 

 mountain spring, or along a meadow brook, or 

 glowing in the shade around the head of a wild 

 mountain lake It stands up two feet high or 



