AN AUNT JANE STORY 



FLOWERS. 



"We have gathered a basket of flow- 

 ers, Aunt Jane. Do come out to the 

 summer house and tell us all about 

 them," called Birdie in her most coax- 

 ing tones. 



"Very well. I'll be with you in a 

 few minutes," was the prompt response. 



"Spring Beauties and Violets in abund- 

 ance," she said, taking up the basket 

 and seating herself in their midst in less 

 than five minutes after she was called. 



"How we wished you were with us," 

 said Alice. "It was such fun picking 

 the flowers." 



"Of course you know," Aunt Jane 

 began, "that the Spring Beauty has a 

 bulbous root which contains the nourish- 

 ment that enables it to blossom at the 

 first call of spring. Such flowers do 

 not wait to develop thick, velvety corol- 

 las, or to manufacture gorgeous colors, 

 but instead of doing this, they spread 

 forth petals which seem delicate as 

 foam and which are dyed in dainty 

 shades of blue, pink or cream, or else 

 forego all color and appear in pure 

 white. 



"Did you not notice how the leaves 

 of the Spring Beauty pierce the cold 

 ground like spears and stand as guards 

 beside the fragile, white flowers, whose 

 crimson lines of color give a pink hue 

 to the corolla, so that when seen from 

 a distance, a large, thickly set bed or 

 them resembles a fall of pink snow?" 



"We said when we gathered them 

 that it had 'snowed' Spring Beauties," 

 said Alice. "The grass was simply pink 

 with them, there were so many." 



"Yet, on close inspection, a diversity 

 of color is seen. Some of the blossoms 

 are quite pink, others almost white ; still 

 others striped in lines of white and 

 crimson, while a few in an odd freak 

 have donned a j)arti-colored dress, half 

 white and half red. 



"The Spring Beauty is no child of the 

 shade. It arrives before the sugai 



maple has had time to hang out its 

 myriad golden bells, and when the 

 fairies of the spring have only just com- 

 menced their task of climbing the trees 

 to set a green cap on every twig." 



"Is it called Spring's Beauty because 

 it comes so early. Auntie?" 



"Perhaps so. The poets have neglect- 

 ed the Beauty when writing their trib- 

 utes to the flowers. This fact is doubt- 

 less owing to its name, which for 

 poetical purposes is an unfortunate one, 

 as a compound word is somewhat un- 

 graceful in rhyme. Its botanical name, 

 Claytonia znrginica is derived from the 

 name of a botanist." 



"Here is the Violet," said John, pick- 

 ing out a fine specimen. "I am sure it 

 is well named." 



"Yes, its color gives it a very appro- 

 priate and pretty name. This flower be- 

 longs to a large family numbering sev- 

 eral hundred species. It is not, how- 

 ever, a true cosmopolitan, as it avoids 

 extremes of heat and cold, having its 

 habitat chiefly in the temperate regions. 

 Still its area is an immense one." 



"That is so," said John, "for I read 

 about Jephson finding some common, 

 blue Violets on the Mountains of th': 

 Moon. He gave them to Emin Pasha to 

 classify." 



"The Violet," she continued, "is not 

 only a widely dispersed flower, as you 

 have found, but it is also a very old one, 

 and possessed of classical dignity in be- 

 ing mentioned by Homer and Virgil. 

 There are two traditions as to how it 

 came by its Greek name, Ton.' When 

 To' was transformed by Jupiter into a 

 heifer she fed on Violets. Or the name 

 may be due to the nymphs of lona, who 

 first presented chaplets of these flowers 

 as an offering to the father of the 

 gods." 



'Didn't Proserpine give the Violet its 

 (lark hue?" asked Alice. 



"Yes ; and Athens used the Violet as 



