ORCHIDS. 21 
horsetails, — only ‘there were giants in those days, —or else 
like our cone-bearing trees, all reproducing in the secret way 
ferns still know, or the quiet Way pine-cones have. Not till 
long ages afterward did the Junes bear blossoms. 
“Thinking of that, we can hardly say the ‘good old times. 
We thank Heaven that the birds and flowers came before us. 
Indeed the earth had to be ripe for them before it could be ripe 
for us. So here we are to-day; and the whole land, all summer 
through, laughs for us in grass and flowers,—that peal begin- 
ning in the anemones and violets, rising into roses, and ending 
in the golden rod and asters. Great tribes of beings have been 
already born, and others are on their way to life, for peopling 
this planet with color and beauty. 
“Flowers and art! flowers and poetry: we must now add, 
the flowers and science; for in the flowers a name is written, 
and to-day that name is found to have been written from the 
beginning in all things that are. All things grow. The flower 
is type of the universe, and the lily of the field is sowing afresh 
for us the problems of creation.” 
We linger at the vigil 
With him who bent the knee 
To watch the old-time lilies 
In distant Galilee; 
And still the worship deepens, 
And quickens into new, 
As, brightening down the ages, 
God’s secret thrilleth through. 
The flower-horizons open, 
The blossom vaster shows, 
We hear the wide world’s echo, 
“ See how the lily grows! ” 
