FRIENDSHIP OF FLOWERS 139 



or have seen in his confines, and his indifference will chill 

 you to the marrow ; but talk softly of tigrinum splendens 

 or let murmurs of spedosum rubrum or lilium auratum 

 fall from your lips, and at once he will melt, give you 

 the grip of the brotherhood, and bid you welcome. 



To return to the lily beds, it is quite remarkable how a 

 stalk or two will give mystery and romance as well as 

 beauty to the humblest inclosure. The iris is a distant re- 

 lation; and hastily passing in review the lilies you have 

 seen and lilies read of, is there another flower species more 

 wonderful in variety, more curious in quality and charms? 



Just now the yellow and tawny orange lilies parade 

 the fields to make pictures of color with ripened harvests 

 and bronzed grasses. The lilium canadense, straggling 

 carelessly from disorderly blades at the roots, has the 

 appearance of longing to escape from gardens to run 

 after the Turkp's-cap camping in the meadows. The 

 plantain lily (funkia) is the most obedient grower of all, 

 making it a pleasure to set prim rosettes of shining leaves 

 along the edges of paths or as borders to the beds. 



The lilium spedosum rubrum, the crimson-banded 

 lily, and the tigrinum splendent, most gorgeous of tiger 

 lilies, are aristocrats from tip to toe. It is customary to 

 set them in clumps of nine, the mystic number of the 

 muses, and the rubrum looks its best in the early morning 

 sun when the dew is exhaled from the grass, while the 

 tigrinum splendens, so royal and gorgeous, is planted 



