88 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 
resemblance to the Shin-leaf. Its fragrant white 
flowers are borne in a spike on a stem varying 
greatly in height, though averaging perhaps 
twelve inches. The plants are found in open 
woods, over an area extending from Nova Scotia 
and Minnesota on the north to Georgia and Ohio 
on the south, 
Oh! wherefore were the flowers made, 
All dyed with rainbow light, 
All fashioned with supremest grace, 
Upspringing day and night; 
Springing on valleys green and low, 
' And on the mountains high, 
_ And in the silent wilderness 
Where no man passes by? 
God might have made the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small,— 
The oak tree and the cedar tree, 
And not a flower at all. 
Mary Howitt. 
