The Charm of Color 
247 
bloom of spring to the gay berry of autumn, he knows 
all beautiful things that grow, and where they grow, 
for hundreds of miles around his home. 
I speak of him in this connection because he has 
acquired through his woodland life a wonderful 
power of distinguishing flowers at great distance 
with absolute accuracy. Especially do his eyes have 
the power of detecting those rose-lilac tints which 
are characteristic of our rarest, our most delicate wild 
flowers, and which I always designate to myself as 
Arethusa color. He brought me this June a royal 
gift — a great bunch of wild fringed Orchids, another 
of Calopogon, and one of Arethusa. What a color 
study these three made ! At the time their lilac- 
rose tints seemed to me far lovelier than any pure 
rose colors. In those wild princesses were found 
every tone of that lilac-rose from the faint blush 
like the clouds of a warm sunset, to a glow on the lip 
of the Arethusa, like the crimson glow of Mullein 
Pink. 
My friend of the meadow and wildwood had 
gathered that morning a glorious harvest, over two 
thousand stems of Pogonia, from his own hidden 
spot, which he has known for forty years and from 
whence no other hand ever gathers. For a little 
handful of these flower heads he easily obtains a 
dollar. He has acquired gradually a regular round 
of customers, for whom he gathers a successive har- 
vest of wild flowers from Pussy Willows and Hepat- 
ica to winter berries. It is not easily earned money 
to stand in heavy rubber boots in marsh mud and 
water reaching nearly to the waist, but after all 
