The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-04-24


the war of the roses. But after awhile
the sen of one married the daughter
Of the other and stopped the war and
the two roses were united into one
and called the Tudor rose.
In the eleventh century the Danes
made war upon Scotland, and one dark
night planned an attack upon a for
tress that was the key to the whole
country. They took off their shoes
and breeches so as to swim across a
moat that surrounded the fortress,
thinking that the moat was deep and
'ull of water But the Scotch had near
ty filed the moat with thistle, and it
stuck the Danes so terribly that they
yelled in agony and got out quickly
and the Scotch took them unawares
and killed nearly all of them before
hey could put on their shoes and
'reeChes. The thistle saved Scotland,
and so they took it for their national
lower
Away back in the centuries when
good st. Patrick went to Ireland as a
missionary. he preached to them about
invaded Wales, and just before great
battle one dark, cloudy evening the
Welsh went through a field where the
leeks or wild onions were in bloom,
and every man plucked one and stuck
it in his hat so as to distinguish their
soldiers from the enemy, and by this
means they whipped the fight and
saved their country. After that they
took the leek for their national flower.
When Napoleon Bonaparte overran
Germany and the emperor and his
family had to fly from Berlin and con-
ceal themselves, he was awfully dis
tressed and they liked to have perish
ed. But his old mother made garlands
Of little wild flower, known as the
corn flower or kaiserblume, and put
them on him and cheered him up, and
when Bonaparte was vanquished the
emperor adopted that little wild flower
as the national emblem.
When Louis VII started out on the
Crusades he chose the iris as his
badge, and when he returned with his
army it was adopted as the nations
flowers. l wish we had one for our
nation, and we will have one when
the Federation of Woman's Clubs
takes hold of the matter. and l hope
it will be the golden rod. 1t grows
from Maine to Mexico and bends its
graceful head in field and forest.
The reason l got to Illuminating
about flowers was because our good
ladies gave an entertainment the 9th
er night which was quite original and
peculiar. 1t was called the enchanted
garden. There were twelve pretty
flowers painted on a long curtain and
in front Of them was an old gardener
teaching a pretty little girl her first
lesson in flowers. He told her~the or
origin and how they got their names
and whenever he mentioned one of the
flowers that was on the curtain and
pointed to 1t that flower disappeared
as if by enchantment and in It's place
there appeared the face of pretty
girl or woman, who sang song that
fitted the flower-such songs as only
a Pansy Blossom" THE Last Rose OF
Summer" Pond Lilies" "a Bunch
of Daisies" etc. At intervals between
the songs the old gardener told his
pupil how Clyta fell in love with Ap-
polio, the god of the sun, and she
gazed upon him so continually that
he got tired of it and turned her into
a heliotrope, for this Greek word
means turned by the sun. And how
Appolo's cup-bearer was a very hand
some boy and Appolo loved him so
much that another boy killed him
envy and his dead body was
turned into a hyacinth.
The Greek spelling is Yacinthus and
Appolo stamped the Greek letter Y on
every petal and it is there yet. And
how very vain and handsome youth
spent all of his time looking at him
one day he fell in and was drowned
and Appolo changed his body into
narcissus. And how the carnation was
always a pink or flesh color for the
Greek word carnos means flesh, but
now it is of all colors. And how dande-
lion means a lions tooth from the shape
Of its leaves, and the tulip means a
turban and the geranium means
cranes bill from the shape of its
seed pods, and the nasturtium means
a nose twister, for when you smell 1t
or taste the seed the pungent odor
and taste make you draw up your face
and curl up your nose. And the old
man told about many others. and 1t
seems that we not only got the names
of the days and the months and the
stars from ancient mythology, but we
have even kept the names of their
flowers