6 FIBST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



because Shakespeare loved it, and that because Milton 

 wrote of it. 



12. But, indeed, our thoughts cannot stay within 

 garden walls when we ask the poets to walk with us. 

 "We wander into spring fields powdered with daisies 

 and golden with buttercups, and to forest-glades where 

 the blue hyacinth is " like the heavens upbreaking 

 through the earth." There are cowslips among the 

 grass and poppies in the corn, and from the woods 

 comes a cuckoo's call that was never heard in 

 Australia. 



13- Thus am I a citizen of the world when I walk 

 in my garden. 



14. And if the flowers take us to the ends of the 

 earth, they also take us into times long gone by. 

 Ages have gone to the making of a plant ; and its 

 history is written on its face if only we could read it. 

 The smallest weed has passed through a thousand 

 changes of soil and climate, of friends and foes, and 

 only the All-knowing Creator could give the full story 

 of the meanest flower that breathes. But to us. His 

 sons and daughters, He has given the delight of being 

 able to spell out this story here and there. There is 

 not a line or spot on leaf or flower but has its 

 meaning. T^hia ia the true language of flowers. Happy 

 he who can read it ! 



