WINTRY DAYS 267 



fly ; nor suddenly moderate her offerings. But 

 we know that the completion of her purpose 

 depends on the presence of animal life. By the 

 varied forms of insects Nature embellishes and 

 completes the loves of the wild-flowers. Insects are 

 her high-priests, who instinctively perform their 

 functions. Their temples extend beyond horizons, 

 on open hillsides where larks worship the sun, on 

 lonely heaths where quaking-grasses dance to the 

 music of the harebells, or in long woodland aisles 

 consecrated by the sylvan choir whose strains 

 blend in concordant song ever changing, yet ever 

 the same, throughout each summer day, rising and 

 falling like ocean waves, and fading with the ebb 

 of light. 



But the flower was not formed only to be beau- 

 tiful. Those hard, dry phyllaries of the involucre 

 arms of the cup in which the blossom rests 

 were developed for a higher purpose than merely 

 to support gaudy petals. They protected the bud 

 from the storm, warded off the hail, and bore 

 without injury the pelting rain. And when the 

 petals had bloomed and faded, these more endur- 

 ing arms enfolded the heart of the flower, and 



