Music of the Wild 



have a spot of blue. In company with Troilus, 

 Archippus, and Coenia, these handsomest of all 

 marsh butterflies flutter slowly from flower to 

 flower, providing most beautiful pictures where 

 everj'thing is a component part of one great, bril- 

 liant panorama. 



What a quantity of gold there is in a marsh 

 when it even takes wing and flies through the air! 

 Pure Gold So many of the plants and flowers are yellow that 

 in August the color predominates all around the 

 borders; yes, and even more. It lifts above the 

 water as well; for there is the yellow lily, the pur- 

 est gold of all, sturdily erecting its unalloyed head 

 above the miu-ky surface. 



Its habitat is a short distance farther out than 

 the arrowhead lily and the blue flag. It requires 

 more water. The white pond lily leaf and bloom 

 rests directly on the siu-face, the yellow raises its 

 thick, woolly leaf and flower stems above. The 

 blooms have six cupjjy, deeply overlapping petals 

 of piu-est gold at the tip, green at the base outside, 

 and maroon of bright color inside. In the smallest 

 species the inside maroon is almost red. The 

 stigma is a deep yellow disk, very large; and as it 

 ripens the stamens seem to peel from it and grow 

 dusty with pollen, while the flower unfolds. 



On the first day of bloom the petals open so 

 narrowly that any bee entering must of necessity 

 trail the pollen adhering to its fuzz, across the 



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