Show P 9 e 44 W f N V 3 N CZ z av IV ra 10 vj a vr 3 4 T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON S WE read the sixth chapter of the gospel according to st matthew we find these two verses and why take ye thought for raiment consider the lilies of 0 the field how they grow they toll not neither do they spin and yet I 1 say unto onto you too 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 symbol the lily has a double significance it Is one of the earliest spring flowers it typifies pities ty the rebirth of nature after the iona ion winter sleep in its dry do brown bulb life lies dormant during daring the winter and then when spring comes this life begins to stir first it 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 resurrected life its other significance Is a religious one its snowwhite snow white purity being emblematic of tile the flawless life of christ whose resurrection from the tomb we commemorate on easter day in fact no other flower has a place in the religious life and literature of the christian world to compare to the illy 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 prized it above all flowers and to la their earlier civilizations it had bad already come to symbolize purity and virtue it was because of the place lilies had won ion in the popular esteem that they found place in the early paintings of the virgin the angel gabriel was depleted depicted carrying thom in annunciation pictures and it Is because of tills this that the most beautiful of these flowers billum cond idam most used at easter Is called the madonna lily illy although this trumpet trumpetlike like blossom Is the best known of all the members of the illy family there are others which are very interesting even though they do not have such significance tor for vs us as the madonna lily illy in the high himalayas in asia grows a great lily illy ten feet tall agents of tile united states government found a magnificent specimen of illy in china a generation ago agoa a lily illy of the madonna type but hardier and brought it to america and they have been offering it to aitt citizens 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 stalwart stalks sometimes nine feet tall has the turks ca cap I 1 K may have halt a dozen orange blooms at its top but those who have tamed this plant and given it care have induced it to provide as many as 40 blossoms A quite different american flower Is the little trout lily illy which likes to grow along the streams or in the deep woods with the nourishment mt it has up cp 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 tile stage of making shade to interfere with fill it A radiant yellow the trout Illy stands out vividly against its background of green the blue flak flag running to purple Is another american lily illy that has found itself a home in many gardens g the mottled tiger lily illy has haa been a favorite in california for many generations the leopard lily lights the heather dun and the late shorn meadow Is often red with their bloom the red lilies of new england however outshine them all and have inspired many a poet of that region lucy larcom spoke of them as red lilies blazing out of the thicket paul hamilton Ba milton hayne thought thou that the red ille illy stands froni from all her sister flowers flowen apart D A 4 aa v 4 t L r 10 MACK 4 1 40 probably the most remarkable illy 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 illy 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 a tall stalk that may reach like a flagpole into the desert sunshine at the top of this start staff there forms and finally breaks into bloom such an assemblage of pure white bell ilk like e richly perfumed and la in every way perfect lilies as nature produces nowhere else in a single cluster it la Is given to the desert to grow the greatest of all the llly illy bearing plants despite the tact fact that the chief habitat of the breed seems to be the marsh lilies all grow from bulbs this bulb making capacity of the lily illy family Is one of its dominant traits it and the six petals to all lily illy blooms are marks of the tribe tulips daffodils hyacinths crocuses all are actually because they spring from bulbs members of the lily illy family but beautiful as are these members of the illy family there are others which are utilitarian rather than purely ornamental and which although like the lilies of the field which toll not do furnish mankind with edible crops surprising though it may be botanists will tell you that some of our common vegetables are arc in reality lilies there Is asparagus for instance that Is bought in the market tied up la in bundles of many stalks each exactly like the other there Is nothing about this asparagus to in this form that would indicate that it Is a illy asparagus tips are but young plants just coming through the ground if they were allowed to biow they would throw out tall lily illy like ilke stalks and crown them with six tipi d flowers that any ob observer erver would be able to identify as lilies the presence of this commonplace asparagus in an idling family Is rather a let down to its pretensions this however Is not the worst if the truth must be told the onion is a lily illy the onion odion Is a lily illy that has been bred through centuries for the development of its bulb and the suppression of its top so it has come about that the bulb may be three inches across and the top so insignificant that when it has dried up it hardly appears at all yet when this top is growing and flowering it Is like those delicate plants of the window sills which sometimes are called tube roses but which actually are a delicate refined refilled and fragrant lily illy that comes out of the orient onions came caine from the near east and in ancient days furnished a staple stapie food tor for the rural inhabitants of greece and italy not only was garlic a food but it was reputed to have medicinal value and to be helpful to the stomach in its functions these two bulb vegetables the clade debellas rellas of the plant food world ride about tile the earth in trainloads train loads loads the material service they render Is greater than that of all the other lilies put together one would have to look far in all the relationships of af nature to find a contrast more striking than that of tile easter illy ind and the garlic of the mediterranean even thou though h the illy is the one perfect symbol of easter there are two others which through the centuries have become so closely associated with this red letter day in our aalon calendars that we think of them almost as quickly in thinking of easter as we do of the lily illy they are the rabbit and the egg the association of the rabbit or hare with easter has its foundations in the ancient belief in european and asiatic countries that the hare bare Is the symbol for the moon in fact the chinese represent the moon as a rabbit pound 1 ing rice in a mortar while hindu and i japanese artists paint the ha hare re across the face of the moon As tile the time of the easter festival Is governed by the phases of the moon tills this may be rn nn explanation of their connection since the resurrection of C christ occurred in the spring it Is easy to see how the symbols of the egg and all revived life in the springtime came to be associated with this event in the history of christianity the egg as a symbol was taken over by the ue he brews as an emblem of their delivery from bondage and next the early christians took it over as their sym bol of the resurrection |