252 East and West 
violet commend themselves above the rest. 
Purple and white fringed orchids have seemed 
perhaps the loveliest creations of the floral 
world; while the yellow cypripedium has 
more of the enchantment of the woods than 
any other flower, not excepting wild ginger— 
a woodsy plant—and clintonia, fraught with 
sylvan associations. Fringed gentians and 
cardinal lobelias are two Eastern flowers one 
can no more describe than one can carry 
them away from their native haunts. There 
is a loss in describing as there is a loss in 
picking them. Each has an atmosphere— 
an aura—of its own; each exerts its own 
peculiar influence upon the sensitive eye. 
Goldenrod and asters are flowers whose effect 
depends more upon mass, yet when associated 
with the seashore, as upon the weathered 
granite of Cape Ann, they are among the 
most potent influences in the floral world. 
Near the Pacific my association is with 
plants quite different, yet so subtle is the 
difference and so subtle the reasons for it, 
that I can by no means explain it. They 
yield different impressions, in short, as do 
our various acquaintances and friends, and 
it is not always easy to say why. Among the 
first is the mariposa, of which there are 
