A GLANCE AT BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 189 



slipper ; no bog flower that compares with our calo- 

 pogon and arethusa, so common in southeastern New 

 England ; no brook-side flower that equals our jewel- 

 weed ; no rock flower before which one would pause 

 with the same feeling of admiration as before our 

 columbine ; no violet as striking as our bird's-foot 

 violet ; no trailing flower that approaches our match- 

 less arbutus ; no fern as delicate as our maiden-hair ; 

 no flowering shrub as sweet as our azaleas. In fact, 

 their flora presented a commoner type of beauty, 

 very comely and pleasing, but not so exquisite and 

 surprising as our own. The contrast is well shown 

 in the flowering of the maples of the two countries 

 that of the European species being stiff and coarse 

 compared with the fringe-like grace and delicacy of 

 our maple. In like manner the silken tresses of our 

 white pine contrast strongly with the coarser foliage 

 of the European pines. But what they have, they 

 have in greatest profusion. Few of their flowers 

 waste their sweetness on the desert air ; they throng 

 the fields, lanes, and highways, and are known and 

 seen of all. They bloom on the house-tops, and 

 wave from the summits of castle walls. The spring 

 meadows are carpeted with flowers, and the midsum- 

 mer grain-fields, from one end of the kingdom to the 

 other, are spotted with fire and gold in the scarlet 

 poppies and corn marigolds. 



I plucked but one white pond lily, and that was in 

 the Kew Gardens, where I suppose the plucking was 

 trespassing. Its petals were slightly blunter than 



