154 



IN SPRING. 



method of expressing his opinion of the merits of 

 that region ; but I am not so sure that the Vic- 

 toria is the most beautiful of all aquatic plants. 

 Finding it growing and blooming every summer 

 in an open field near by, I have surely the right 

 to express my preference for another. It and the 

 lotus grow in the same waters, and I love the 

 lotus more, give it the first place among flowers, 

 although there floats upon the surface of these 

 same waters royal red lilies of India, tooth-leaved 

 white lilies from Sierra Leone, the golden one 

 of Florida, and, perhaps more magnificent than 

 all, the splendid purple lily of Zanzibar. I can 

 start across-lots and quickly come upon them 

 all in an open field; but it is the lotus that 

 holds me. 



I can not rid myself of the thought that with 

 the Victoria, as with all its attendant lilies, the 

 hand of the care-taker is necessary. A very 

 Amazon itself, it needs an Amazonian setting. 

 We look for a naked baby on the largest pad, 

 and the infant's mother in a canoe gathering 

 Victorian seed-vessels. These, with a troop of 

 scarlet ibises, spur-winged jacanas, and chattering 

 macaws, are all needed to complete the picture. 

 With them, the world has perhaps nothing more 

 striking to offer ; without them, the plant is too 

 bizarre, too like the eagle when shorn of its 

 priceless gift of liberty. Not so with the lotus , 



