FLOWERS OF THE SEASON 
i53 
ways and habits, their likes and dislikes, lend zest 
to the familiarity that grows with the years* 
The northern lakes and 'streams are specially 
favoured in advancing summer by the Cardinal 
Lobelia, the brightest and most intensely coloured of 
all the wild flora, and by the Scented Water Lily, 
a younger sister of the White Water Lily, familiar 
on the quiet waters along the lake* The Cardinal 
Lobelia often shows a glowing spot of colour on a 
beaver meadow* It can never be mistaken, for no 
other flower can rival it in intensity and brilliance. 
The nodding flower of the Pitcher-plant seems dull 
in comparison, and even the brilliant tufts of the 
Painted-cup, which disappeared earlier in the season, 
lacked the bright vitality of colour* Along the 
streams it stands forth as nature's proudest decoration* 
It arises from the black, boggy earth, standing boldly 
among the naked branches of a long-fallen Cedar or 
stretching above the marsh grasses that would veil it 
from the sun* Often it grows in abundance, making 
many splashes of scarlet where some narrow stream 
reaches the dense underbrush about the feet of 
towering Maples. 
The Scented Water Lily has a fragrance that 
lingers in the memory and comes back with every 
thought of the shallow bays in the irregular lakes 
of the north* These flowers seem diminutive repro- 
ductions of big white Water Lilies, which the 
