St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-26
Literary Women Join in a
Symposium to Make a
Choice.
Mrs. Leslie FaVOpS a Laurel,
and Mrs. Logan a Pond
Lily,
Mrs. Brigham Wants a Cen
tian and Ella Wheeler q
Daisy.

tian and Ella Wheeler q
Daisy.
Philadelphia Times
Since Mrs. Harrison had the burr oak
leaf figured on the silk from which
was made her gown for the inaugural
ball, and more especially since the cen
tennial celebration of WashingtOn's
Inauguration has quickened the feeling
of nationality, the question, why we
have not an emblematic flower, has
begun to be discussed among women.
There are the roses of England, the
thistle of Scotland, the shamrock of Ire
land. the tleur de lis of France and the
violet of the followers of Napoleon, the
mignonette of Saxony, the linden, be-
loved of Prussians; the pomegranate of
Spain, the lotus of Egypt, and the num-
BILE leek of Wales. Is there i'll this
broad country any flower OF plant which
is in any way entitled to represent us?
Have we posy or bit of green which
is strongly marked and may stand for
our bigness and strength, our high
hopes and the sturdy character of our
people? Is there any bloom which is
beautiful, which we all love. and which
could be worn as BeacOnsfield's friends
wear the primrose, as the bride wears
the myrtle and the orange. as the victor
used to wear the laurel, for bit of SEN
timent, for pride and loyalty? If we
have flag and a bird, why not a
national flower?
i
A VOTE FOR CHRYSANTHEMUM.
Editor now of Harper's Bazaar Mrs.
Margaret E. Sangster was looking up at
the same pictures which used to. hang
"a national tfower?' she said. 1.-The
country is too large, and the elements
of its civilization are too mixed to make
it an easy task to indicate any bloom
which could be accepted as emblematic
or representative. Could any single
type or combination of types stand for
such diversity? The mignonette would
be my choice personally, but that is too
modest for this land of boOms. I do
not know flower more beautiful than
the jasmine, which garlands the South
with its yellow blossoms, but no flower
would meet with general approval
which is peculiar to section. The
golden rod has some things to recon-
mend it, but am inclined to pin my
faith to the chrysanthemum. 1t is a
beautiful flower and glOriOusly brave
one. Haunting its banners in the very
face Of Jack Frost. 1t is vigorous
flower and a noble one, and it belongs
to the astors. which grow everywhere,
and whose CHEEKY autumn colors
brighten the landscape. You may count
me for The chrysanthemum."
II
WHY NOT GENTIAN?
Miss Mary A. Brigham, the newly
elected president of Mount Holyoke,
the youngest woman's college rising on
the foundations of the oldest seminary
for girls i'll New England, hesitated a
minute between the five-petaled flower
Of the briar and the fringed gentian.
1.-The gentian." caressing all the
gentian is the most beautiful of our
native wild flowers, but it is compara-
lively rare and in many sections I'M
known. The wild rose. the pink, sim
gle rose, is we'll defined in it's charac-
teristics, delicate in color, unconven-
tional and extremely graceful. 1t is
strong, luXuriant, almost riOtOus
grower. and yet not easily transplanted.
1t would lend itself to decorative pur-
poses, could be painted, or chiseied, or
carved. 1t gives out It's fragrance gen.
erously, and yet it has thorns for too
rude a hand. 1t is unlike the red and
white roses Of England, a free, virgin
growth of our own SOIL"
II
THE PLASTIC PANSY.
sWhy not the pansy" asked Mrs.
Lillian W. Belts, so pleasantly known
by her work on the Christion Union.
sit is not a wild flower, but does the
rapid peopling, the hurried, almost
forced civilization of our continent call
for wild flower for its emblem? We
have here mingling of all the peoples
of the globe; our flower may be some
thing which has come over the seas
with us rather than wild, natural
growth, provided we have made it,
after getting it here, peculiarly our
own. This is the case with the pansy.
American florists have brought it to a
perfection nowhere else attained. They
have made it absolutely plastic in their
hands. They can grow pansies of any
definitely; the pansy, like men and
women, attains its highest development
OH American soil. The NorWegians
call it the 'step-mother flower likening
the large, gold-fecked petal to the step
mother, the two bright but gorgeous
petals on each side of it to her own
daughters, and the other two humber
petals, farther removed, to the step
children. All Americans love the
pansy, and in every garden bed you
find it blossoming in the spring. Even
in the little apronful of ground in front
of dingy city tenement, OF in the win
dow box or the roof garden, the worker
who has no other flower tends the
pansy. We have adopted it heartily"
III
MRS. LESLIE OUT FOR LAURELs.
Mrs. Frank Leslie says: ''Set me
down as advocating the laurel-our
laurel, which grows only in America
and which f1ourishes in every section of
our country from Maine to Florida and
from Massachusetts to California. The
laureIs are green as ever they fall. The
laurel for AmerIcansw
-+t+
CELIA LOGAN AND POND LILIES.
Celia Logan, of the editorial staff of
Belford's Magazine, is a genial writer
who offered hospitable entertainment to
the suggestion of national flower.
IF we can fix upon flower why not
the pond lily? think it is indigenous,
and, more than that, peculiar to our
soil. 1t has size and beauty of form of
fragrance, and withal it is as character
istic of our waters as the lotus is Of the
Nile. It's our most glorious summer
flower. 1t almost gives us the colors of
the flag. There are pink pond lilies,
and in a few localities the rare blue