o is not the paradise of wild-flowers, it is incomparably richer
in them than any State east of the Mississippi River and north of "Mason
and Dixon's Line." To begin with, there is a marvelous variety. Since I
have taken note of them, from about the 10th of June till nearly the
same date in July, I have found in my daily walk of not more than a mile
or two, each time from one to seven new kinds. A few days I have found
seven, many times I have brought home four, and never has a day passed
without at least one I had not seen before. That will average, at a low
estimate, about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, and all
within a radius of four miles. What neighborhood can produce a record
equal to this?

Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so abundant. Hardly a root
contents itself with a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only one
I have noticed as yet. One root will usually send up from one to a dozen
stems, fairly loaded with buds--like the yucca--which open a few every
day, and thus keep in bloom for weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it
will be packed with buds from the ground to the tip, with new ones to
come out for every blossom that falls.

One in the vase on my stand at this moment is of this sort. It is a stem
that sometimes attains a height of four or five feet. I think it
lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to look at its preparations,
that must be all summer. Every two or three inches of the stout stem is
a whorl of leaves and buds and blossoms. Except the number of buds, it
is all in fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, are four leaves,
like a carnation leaf at first, but broadening and lengthening till it
is two inches at the base and eight or ten long. Rising out of the axil
of each leaf are buds, of graduated size and development up to the open
blossom. That one stem, therefore, is prepared to open fresh flowers
every day for a long time.

The plant is exquisitely beautiful, for the whole thing, from the stem
to the flower petals, is of a delicate, light pea-green. The blossom
opens like a star, with four stamens and four petals. The description
sounds mathematical, but the plant is graceful--a veritable symphony in
green.

A truly royal bouquet stands on my table--three spikes of yucca flowers
in a tall vase, the middle one three feet high, bearing fifty blossoms
and buds, of large size and a pink color; on its right, one a little
less in size, with long creamy cups