48 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
most successful artists will not, for instance, 
consent to put those together which do not 
grow together; for Nature understands her 
business, and distributes her masses and back- 
grounds unerringly. Yonder soft and feathery 
Meadow Sweet longs to be combined with 
Wild Roses; it yearns towards them in the 
field, and, after withering in the hand most 
readily, it revives in water as if to be with 
them in the vase. In the same way the White 
Spiraea serves as natural background for the 
Field Lilies. These lilies, by the way, are the 
brightest adornment of our meadows during 
the short period of their perfection. We have 
two species, — one slender, erect, solitary, scar- 
let, looking up to heaven with all its blushes 
on; the other clustered, drooping, pale yellow. 
I never saw the former in such profusion as on 
the bare summit of Wachusett. The granite 
ribs have there a thin covering of crisp moss, 
spangled with the white, starry blossoms of the 
Mountain Cinquefoil ; and as I lay and watched 
the red lilies that waved their innumerable urns 
around me, it needed but little imagination to 
see a thousand altars, sending visible flames 
forever upward to the answering sun. 
August comes: the Thistles are in bloom, 
beloved of butterflies ; deeper and deeper tints, 
more passionate intensities of color, prepare the 
