Midsummer 



In the woods and along the thicket- 

 bordered fields the vivid cups of the wood 

 lily gleam from clusters of dull bracken 

 or from feathery, gold - tinged fern-beds. 

 These had never seemed to me so almost 

 blood-like in color as when I caught con- 

 stant glimpses of them from the train a 

 few days ago. As it had been raining 

 heavily, I thought that the unusual in- 

 tensity of their hue might be due to a re- 

 cent bath. But in my wanderings since 

 then I have encountered equally brilliant 

 specimens, and again conclude that the 

 flowers of this year are unusually deep- 

 hued and vigorous. 



The Turk's cap lily, the well-named 

 Lilium superbum of the botanies, is near- 

 ly always so imposing with its stout 

 stem, that, at its best, would overtop a 

 giant, and with its radiant, recurved flow- 

 ers, thirty or forty of which are some- 

 times found on one plant that it is al- 

 most sure to surprise us anew whenever 

 So 



