The Charm of Color 
2 35 
and I think it must have been the flower sung by 
Leigh Hunt: — 
“ The nice-leaved lesser Lilies, 
Shading like detected light 
Their little green-tipt lamps of white.’ ’ 
The illustration on page 234 shows the graceful 
growth of the flower and its exquisitely precise little 
green-dotted petals, but it has not caught its lumin- 
ous whiteness, which seems almost of phosphores- 
cent brightness in each little flower. 
The Star of Bethlehem is a plant in which the 
white and green of the leaf is curiously repeated in 
the flower. Gardeners seldom admit this flower 
now to their gardens, it so quickly crowds out every- 
thing else ; it has become on Long Island nothing 
but a weed. The high-growing Star of Bethlehem 
is a pretty thing. A bed of it in my sister’s garden 
is shown on page 237. 
It is curious that when all agree that green flowers 
have no beauty and scant charm, that a green flower 
should have been one of the best-loved flowers of 
my home garden. But this love does not come 
from any thought of the color or beauty of the 
flower, but from association. It was my mother’s 
favorite, hence it is mine. It was her favorite be- 
cause she loved its clear, pure, spicy fragrance. This 
ever present and ever welcome scent which pervades 
the entire garden if leaf or flower of the loved 
Ambrosia be crushed, is curious and characteristic, 
a true “ ambrosiack odor,” to use Ben Jonson’s 
words. 
