Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-22
HAVE AFFECTION. FOR
YOUR STATE FLOWER.
Black-Eyed Susan Made Mary
lands Own By Last Session
Of Legislature.
CALVERT INSIGNIA.
Maryland's State Flower Has
The Maryland Colors, Orange
And Black.

When next you see a field of black
eyed Susans ripping in waves of color
under the warm glow of the sun and
breathe a little deeper for the con-
seriousness of beauty that the sight
sends thrilling through your soul, you
may permit your pleasure to be en-
HANGED with that glow of possessive-
ness which is always so grateful to
the human heart.
You may now with perfect right feel
a pOssessive affection for this richly
eolored. sturdily-growing field flower,
for the Maryland Legislature at its re-
cent session passed a joint resolution
declaring the black-eyed Susan the
official State flower of Maryland, and
on April is, the resolution was signed
by the Governor and became a law.
=. The resolution was introduced in
the State Senate by State Senator Har-
vey Bomberger.&of Washington Coun-
ty, and reads as follows
Whereas, Sentiment has at all times
been associated with the sovereignty
of the State. finding it's expression in
one or other forms of symbolism; and
Whereas, Floral emblems have been
historically employed to represent and
convey the physical, moral or patri-
otto characteristics of peoples; and
Whereas, Thirty-eight States of the
Union have adopted some species of
the flora native to their soils to be
representatives of them; and
Whereas, The Rudbeckia hirta, COM
monty known as Black Eyed Susan, of
the family Compositae, sub-order Lig-
uliforae, by its hardness and vigor
markedly typifies the traditions of
Maryland citizenship; and by its mod
esty and grace the charm of her wom-
anhood, confirming also in a notable
way by its perennial growth and it's
strong self-perpetuating instinct the
motto of the State; and
Whereas, This flower is composed
of and only of the colors of the CAL
vert insignia, the head or crest of
black and petals of gold; therefore,
be it
Resolved by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That His Excellency, the
Governor of Maryland, be and is here
by proclamation on the first day of
June, in the year 1918, the Rudbeckia
hirta or Black-Eyed Susan as the floral
emblem of the State of Maryland
Senator Bomberger, speaking of his
interest in the matter and his intro
duction of the measure, says:
THE National Geographic Magazine
of June, 1917, contains an illustrated
article on the State flowers in which
Maryland was credited with no adop-,
ton, but the statement was made that
the Black-Eyed Susan had been ia
vored. The following lines, from a
popular song of several years ago
would indicate the truth of this
My pretty black-eyed Susan,
The prettiest flower that grows;
You're sweeter that sweet violets,
The lily or the rose.
My heart to you is ever true,
To do as you command,
My pretty black-eyed Susan,
The fiowr of Maryland.
Later in the summer | came upon
patch of the flowers in the country.
which, upon investigation, proved to |
be the Rudbeckia hirta of the bota-
MES. 1t is one of the class of Com
posities, marked by the prevalence of /
the two colors associated with our
States. 1t is known as conefiower
from the somewhat rounded form of |
the dark head or disk from which rad
iates the whorl of yellow narrow
pointed petals. 1t is perennial herb.
grows from one to two feet high, flow
ers on separate stems from June to
September, and is found from New
York West to Wisconsin and south
ward.
The hardness of the plant, its col
ors, the quiet beauty and refinement |
of its bloom, its adaptability for per-
sonal adornment, inclined me to think |
that if the State was to have a flower |
it might adopt by legislative action |
what seemed so properly to be its |
natural choice
Before introducing the resolution I |
conferred with President Campbell of |
the Senate, whom | found entirely ia |
mlliar with the flower, together with |
several well-known florists of the
State and the selection was unani- |
mously approved.
The botanical name is for Prof. /
CLANS Rudbeck and son, the predeces-
Sors of Linnaeus at the University of |
Upsal, Sweden, who laid the founda-
ton for the classification of flowers.
as worked out by their distinguished