Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-27
seem to be all scrambling for times and

seem to be all scrambling for times and
places just as they please
Whether this is proper-indeed, morals
point open to discussion. Until we med
died with it and showed it how to be ever so
much bigger and brighter and earlier, the
crocus was as unpretending and simple-mind-
ed little flower as could be met with in
March day. 1t knew all about its small
duties, and was quite content with itself, in
an unsophisticatsd rustic style. The Romans
believed it was the metamorphosed spirit of
a youth, who died for love of shepardess
called Smilax, and the Greeks said it was a
baby come to life again, the infant having
been killed by an accident by the god Mer
curry, when he was playing at quoits; and
really the crocus did not care much which
was right. It had had the honor of adorning
many nuptial couches, not the least dignified
of which was Jupiter and Juno, of crowning
the wine cup of long succession of Pha-
tables of every Caesar. Nevertheless, this
did not make it proud or cause it to fly in
the face of Providence. It knew that it had
to produce saffron, and it produced it indus
triously. That was its duty in the state of
life to which it had been called. So it came
up yellow. The idea of turning blue, or
blue and white, or purple never entered its
head; it would be preposterous, it said to it
self, to be anything but yellow SO long as it
was called saffron" and had to supply it.
By and by, however, the scientific foricul-
turist came up to the crocus, and made it
turn all kinds of colors, get up at the most
unreasonable hours of the year, blow itsel
out untilit looked like tulip tri1e off Fits
head, and otherwise demean itself in man
ner utterly unbecoming to its traditions.
Yellow was the nuptial color, as it still is
over half the world, but if it grew blue, the
crocus had to renounce its honoIs. And how
about those pretty legends of the beautiful
youth who loved a sheperdess too much and
the baby killed with quot? The Greek
and Romans distinctly informed the flow g.
that these persons were turned into yellow
crocuses, SO that if it came out of it's bulb
purple it must of course sever its connection
with the classics altogether. 1t is not one
of the 'Fherbs of the sun''-and who ever
heard of the sun being blue, or blue and
white, or purple? In this way then, by
robbing poor plant of it's legends we are
doing an injury to it. Or, take another So
called ''spring fower''-the tulip. Certainly
it is not one that seems to need much sympa-
thy, being of an aggressive: self asserting,
gaudy sort, that looks after itself in a pom
pous, stuck-up way. Many of the traditions,
too agree in making it brilliant, parti-
colored flower. Thus the Delmatian nymph
who rejected Vertumpus' wooing was
changed into tulip just as she stood, with
green bodice and skirts of many hues, SO
that, "though transformed. the love she
bore to co1ors still delights her as before"
So, too, in the language of flowers, it's fierce,
hame-like tints express the scorchings of the
lovers heart and the intolerable combustion
of his affections. Thus far, then, the tulip
has little to complain of. The alterations
made by science are all on the same plane, as
it were, and natural prelongation of the
original idea of gaudiness. In the east the
tulip is of uniform red, and POLITICALLY ex-
presses charmer's lips. How, then, with
any deceney of si1nile could the enamoured
sonneteer tell his Della that her lips were
brilliantly striped with yellow and tawny
chestnut or orange white or ring -streaked,
speckled and spotted!