166 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 
“Scarlet tufts 
Are glowing in the green, like flakes of fire ; 
The wanderers of the prairie know them well, 
And call that brilliant flower the painted-cup,” 
~ 
sings Bryant of a Western species. But on second thought per- 
haps the cardinal may still retain his prestige on a technicality, 
for, strictly speaking, the “ brilliant flower” of the painted-cup is a 
misnomer. The actual blossom is an inconspicuous affair, but it 
wears a gorgeous cape and mantle which have apparently been 
dipped half way in the rarest of brilliant dyes, the color being in 
truth displayed upon the floral leaves rather than on the flowers. 
What a fine pure yellow is that of the toad-flax! But our 
finest and most conspicuous yellows are among the golden-rods 
and sunflowers and their kin of rudbeckias and sneeze-weeds. 
The finest orange flaunts in the bloom of the butterfly-weed 
(Asclepias tuberosa). The asters“ Amethystinus” and Nove Angle 
wear the choicest purple, and in the tiny forget-me-not we find a 
touch of pure prismatic blue, which nature has here economized 
as in a turquoise; its like is nowhere repeated in our flora. 
I know of few finer and more harmonious displays of color to 
be found in the whole wild garden than is afforded by a bed of 
blue lupines—a typical bed, such as I have in mind, with their 
dense foliage and spires of bloom thrown in bold relief against a 
background of sunlit sand It is worth a ten-mile walk to see 
one such bed in its prime. “Blue lupine” it is called, but it 
rings the changes on the sapphire tints, and lays the amethyst in 
tribute as well, with its infinite variety, from deepest purple to 
palest pink or white, and in its perfect complementary contrast of 
the background of sunny sand affords a rare harmony of color. 
That is a fine sample of maroon velvet which the ground-nut 
(Aptos tuberosa) blossom holds within its heart. You will find it 
on no other petal. This ground-nut blossom is one of the most 
powerfully fragrant of our native wild flowers, exhaling a perfume 
somewhat suggesting that of the wild grape, and both of which 
bring reminders of mignonette. 
\ 
