WILD FLOWERS WHITE AND GREENISH 
being peddled on our city streets by venders who stand 
stupidly in front of the theatres and larger depart- 
ment stores, grasping a bunch of these handsome, 
drooped buds and flowers by the neck as if they were 
so many shoestrings, and with about as much esthetic 
conception! There is but one encouraging feature 
about this altogether too familiar sight, and that is 
the noticeable absence of patronage. If everyone 
should refrain from purchasing wild flowers from 
street hawkers it would discourage the peddling 
practice quicker than any other method, and con- 
sequently prolong their existence, which has already 
been threatened in many instances with extinction. 
The Water Lily is of high-born parentage, and enjoys 
the proud distinction of kinship to the sacred Lotus of 
the Orient. The Lotus is connected with the birth of 
the Hindoo deity, and has always been symbolic of the 
Buddha faith, to which something like five hundred 
million souls bow allegiance. The Hindoos use the 
Lotus in their funeral ceremonies, and also to decorate 
their temples and monuments. It is the national 
flower of Siam. Japanese artists use it extensively 
for designing and decorating, and their craftsmen 
reproduce it in ivory, gold and bronze. Lotus petals 
were found in the tomb of Rameses II. in 1881, where 
they had reposed for over three thousand years. 
During the Roman period, the Egyptians cultivated the 
Lotus along the River Nile for food. The roots were 
dried in the sun, and then pounded into flour. There 
‘is a superstition among the Wallachians, in Roumania, 
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