ACCORDING TO SEASON 



had " jammed," the fuzzy, whitish pyramids of the 

 meadow-sweet spired upward by the hundred. 



On the banks the blossoms of the fire-weed had 

 made way for the pink, slender pods which were 

 about to crack open, releasing cloudy masses of 

 silver-winged seeds. Great clusters of delicate 

 Osmunda ferns leaned over the water's edge. The 

 Turtle- tall stems and white, huddled flowers of the turtle- 

 head hardly succeeded in keeping out of the stream. 

 As a dark curve of shore swept in sight, against 

 its background of spruce, birch, hemlock, and 

 balsam-fir gleamed 



" The cardinal and the blood-red spots, 

 Its double in the stream." 



In this flower seems to culminate the vivid beauty 

 Cardinal of the summer. Yet, despite its intense color, it 

 fower . g SQ sure to (.^QQgg a cooi^ r i c h setting that it 



never suggests heat, as do the field flowers of the 

 earlier year. 



Many of the lily-pads had been turned over by 

 the swift current, or, perhaps, by a passing boat, 

 and showed the deep, polished pink of their lower 

 Water- sides. Thick among them floated their placid, 

 queenly flowers, with their green and pink-tinged 

 sepals, and their snowy petals which pass imper- 

 ceptibly into the centre of golden stamens. The 

 bright red twigs of the dog-wood, the coral clus- 



162 



lilies 



