MEDITERRANEAN SPRINGS 89 



One may go farther to say that each country has its own 

 primrose its rose of the first months, or should one 

 say since Lent means spring its own Lent lily ? The 

 coldest and more barren regions all at a favourable hour 

 blossom like the rose. They have their golden moment. 

 Certainly Palestine has, however barren with dust and 

 rock it may appear when winter comes and yet more 

 when summer comes. The master flower beyond all 

 question is the scarlet anemone. It is as brilliant, though 

 rather darker, than that favourite in English gardens, 

 anemone fulgens, opens so wide that at the end it changes 

 from a cup to a plate and discloses the full circle of the 

 beauties that have earned these varieties their botanical 

 name, Coronaria. The anemones, the wind flowers of 

 English woods, have as modest a habit as any violet. In 

 Palestine, as in Greece, the anemones challenge attention 

 in open places as well as among bushes. There are 

 scarlet patches alongside the railway from Haifa to 

 Rehoboth* Anemones, white, blue, and scarlet, show 

 the road to Acre and dot the flat plain of Marathon, in 

 company with the sweetest of all the daffodil tribes, the 

 two-headed jonquil, and a small-flowered iris, so deep in 

 hue that the leaf quite outshines the blossom. The Eng 

 lish spring is modest. These more Eastern springs flaunt. 

 In a company of travellers, the historian and the natural 

 historian conflict a little. The direct object of very much 

 travel is to see and hear about the wonders of art. Nature 

 takes a second place. Who would look for flowers in 

 scenes supremely eloquent of the fame and courage of the 

 Knights of Jerusalem ? Nevertheless, it may be reason 

 ably argued that the battlements of Rhodes, certainly the 

 most glorious island even in the Aegean, in its history, 

 its architecture, its natural strength and beauty that those 

 famed survivals of the mighty knights of Europe are 



