Flowers of Mystery 
447 
flower planned so exquisitely, fashioned so slenderly ! 
The pink symmetry of Kalmia perhaps comes near- 
est this perfection, with the delicately curved and 
rounded angles of its bloom.” 
In no garden, no matter how modern, could the 
Fritillaries ever look to me aught but antique and 
classic. They are as essentially of the past, even to 
the careless eye, as an antique lamp or brazier. 
Quaint, too, is the fabric of their coats, like some 
old silken stuff* of paduasoy or sarsenet. All are 
checkered, as their name indicates. Even the white 
flowers bear little birthmarks of checkered lines. 
They were among the famous dancers in my moth- 
er’s garden, and I can tell you that a country dance 
of Fritillaries in plaided kirtles and green caps is a 
lively sight. Another name for this queer little 
flower is Guinea-hen Flower. Gerarde, with his 
felicity of description, says : — 
u One square is of a greenish-yellow colour, the other 
purple, keeping the same order as well on the back side of 
the flower as on the inside ; although they are blackish in 
one square, and of a violet colour in another : in so much 
that every leafe (of the flower) seemeth to be the feather of 
a Ginnie hen, whereof it took its name.” 
A strong personal trait of the Fritillaries (for I 
may so speak of flowers I love) is their air of mys- 
tery. They mean something I cannot fathom ; they 
look it, but cannot tell it. Fritillaries were a flower 
of significance even in Elizabethan days. They were 
made into little buttonhole posies, and, as Park- 
inson says, “ worn abroad by curious lovers of these 
