246 On the Campus 



literature could touch, it : literature simply records what 

 is. 



Sacred trees and flowers lend their beauty to nearly 

 all the legends of ancient Greece. Everybody knows 

 how the laurel was sacred to Apollo. 



"Phoebus sitting one day in the laurel tree's shade 

 Was reminded of Daphne of whom it was made, 

 For the god being one day too warm in his wooing 

 She took to the tree to escape his pursuing," 



while 



"Daphne before she was happily treeified 

 Over all other blossoms the lily had deified. " 



Laurel leaves and berries crowned the victors in those 

 old-time contests where art and wit and beauty vied; 

 and still in the centuries since, men have won laurels in 

 every honorable achievement, especially where learning 

 and scholarship might claim the prize. Would that the 

 tree were native to these newer lands and fields, and that 

 fortune might find occasion once again for its classic 

 use ! How much more elegant the baccalaureate wreath 

 than the colored millinery we derive, not inherit, from 

 the semi-barbarian of the dark ages, frail imitations of 

 the trappings of the Caesars. The savage puts on paint 

 and feathers; the sons and daughters of wisdom bear 

 aniline-tinted tassels and ribbons. 



The laurel was sacred to Apollo, but indeed all the 

 flowers were sacred to the college of the gods. To Juno 

 belonged the anemone, the lily, the asphodel, the poppy, 

 and the violet ; the pink to Zeus, the narcissus to Proser- 



