The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-04-11

And yet l say unto
you, that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these"
And it Is these flowers which, more
than anything else, have become the
symbols of Easter which we celebrate
this year on April 20. AS such a SYM
Dol the lily has double significance.
1t is one of the earliest spring flow
ers. 1t typiies the rebirth of nature
after the long winter sleep. In its
dry, brown bulb life lies dormant dur
ing the winter and then when spring
comes, this life begins to stir. First
ii pushes out the tender green leaves,
and then the buds appear. Finally the
white blossom comes forth in all its
glory as the perfect emblem of resur-
rected life.
Its other significance is religious
one, its snOw-white purity being emble-
matte of the fiawless life of Christ
whose resurrection from the tomb we
commemorate on Easter day. In fact,
no other flower has place in the re-
ligiOus life and literature of the Chris
tian world to compare to the lily. Yet
its glory is not so new as Christianity.
ancient though the beginnings of that
religion may seem to us.
The Greeks and the Romans priced
it above all flowers and in their ear
lier civilizations it had already come
to symbolic purity and virtue 1t was
because of the place lilies had won in
the popular esteem that they found
place in the early paintings of the
Virgin. The angel Gabriel was de-
picted carrying them in annunciation
pictures and it is because of this that
the most beautiful of these flowers.
Lilium condidam, most used at Easter,
is called the madonna lily.
Although this trumpet-lke blossom
is the best known of all the members
of the lily family, there are others
which are very interesting even though
they do not have such significance for
us as the madonna lily. In the high
Himalayas in Asia grows great lily
ten feet tall. Agents of the United
States government found magnificent
specimen of lily in China a generation
ago-a lily of the madonna type, but
hardier-and brought it to America
and they have been offering it to citi-
Zens to plant from coast to coast.
Most of the lilies that are native to
America are radiant with color There
is the turks cap, for instance, that
flaunts the deep yellow of its many
blooms through the waste stretches of
parts of New England. Great, stall
wart stalks, sometimes nine feet tall,
has the turks cap. 1t may have half
a dozen orange blooms at its top, but
those who have tanned this plant and
given it care have induced it to pro-
vide as many as 40 blossoms.
A quite different American flower is
the little trout lily which likes to
grow along the streams or in the deep
woods. With the nourishment it has
saved up in its bulb it starts growing
in the early spring and is likely to
have bloomed before the leaves of the
trees have grown to the stage of maxi
ing shade to interfere with it. ra-
diant yellow, the trout lily stands out
wildly against its background of
green. -
The blue flag running to purple is
another American lily that has found
itself home in many gardens. The
notified tiger lily has been favorite
for many generations. In California
the leopard lily lights the heather
dun" and the late shorn meadow is
often red with their bloom.
The red lilies of New England, how
ever, outshine them all and have in
spired many a poet of that region.
Lucy Larcom spoke of them as "red
lilies blazing out of the thicket." Paul
Hamilton Hayne thought that the red
lily Stands from all her sister flow
ers apart"
Probably the most remarkable lily
in the world is the yucca, or spanish
bayonet, of the arid plains Of the
Southwest. There the lily becomes a
plant that is quite treelike and lives
for years. The lily leaves become
harsh. dagger-tipped implements to
serve the purpose of repelling attack.
These may sit close to the ground or,
again, they may stand as high as a
man on horseback.
From the cluster of leaf armor
there springs now and again tall
stalk that may reach like fagpole
into the desert sunshine. AT the top
of this staff there forms and finally