The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-20
Bill ArIp's Letter,

qishued 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 flower. This
is enough of national flowers. l wish
we had one for our nation, and we will
have one when this Federation of Wom
ems Clubs takes hold of the matter, and
hope it will be the golden rod. 1t
grows from Maine to Mexico and bends
it's graceful head in field and forest.
The reason / got to eliminating about
howers was because our good ladies gave
an entertainment the other 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
their origin and how they got their names
and whenever he mentioned one OF the
flowers that was on the curtain and point
ed to 1T, that flower disappeared as if
by enchantment and in its place there
appeared the face Of a pretty girl or
woman, who sang a song that fitted the
6ower-such songs as only Pansy Bios
SON. 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 Apollo, the god of the sun,
and she gazed upon him so continually
that he got tired of it and turned her
into a heilotrope, for this Greek word
means turned by the sun. And how
Apollo's cup bearer was a very handsome
Toy and Apollo loved him so much that
another boy killed him through envy and
bis dead body was changed into hya-
cinth.
The Greek spelling is Yacinthus and
Apollo stamped the Greek letter on
every petal, and it is there yet. And
how a very vain and handsome youth
spent all of his time looking at him
self in fountain of clear water and one
day he fell in and was drowned and
Apollo changed his body into a narcis
sus. And how the carnaton was always
a pink or flesh color for the Greek word
carnos means flesh, but now it is of all
colors. And how dandelion means a lions
tooth from the shape of its leaves, and
the tulip means a tuban and the gerani-
UNI means a cranes bill from the shape
Of it's seed pods, and the nasturtium
means a nose twister, for when you smell
it 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 it 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
If flowers were as scarce as diamonds
and pearls they would bring much high
err price, for they are really more beau
tiful. A kind Providence made the best
and most beautiful things the most album
dant so that the poor might have them
as we'll as the rich. 1t does not take
money to buy sunshine nor shower nor
| the green grass nor the songs of birds
nor the daisies and lilies that adorn the
fields and meadows.
The great poets books are full of beau
tiful thoughts about flowers. Shakes
peare's lament over the death of Imogen
is full of tears and flowers Horace Smith
in his ode to the flowers says:
"Your voiceless lips, oh flowers! are lv-
ing preachers,
| Each cup a pulpit and each leaf a book"
Mrs. Hemans says:
Bring flowers, fresh flowers, for the
bride to wear;
They were born to blush in her shining
hair"
And Wordsworth says: cit is my faith
that every flowers that blooms enjoys
the air it breathes and is conscious of its
own beauty
1t was a tradition among the early
Christians that when Mary, the mother
! of Jesus, fed with her child into Egypt
beautiful roses and lilies sprang up and
bloomed along her pathway as she jour
neyed through the plains of Sharon and
Jericho Woman and flowers are always
found together, both in fact and in fam
cy. Some men like flowers, too, especial
young men who are in love, but with
many men dogfennel and jimpson weed
are as sweet and pretty as roses and
| yiolets BILL ARP.