12 Lily and Water-Lily.

 

open hillsides—where the tiny silver-grey leaves of
the olive trees make too fine and transparent a tracery
against the blue sky to prevent the sun from warming
the earth—bright anemones, ‘pink and purple and
fiery scarlet, bloom gaily in thousands, and pretty
striped crimson tulips lift their dainty heads among
the growing wheat.

Such flowers as these bloom near to the blue sea,
but away from the sea and away from the hot breezes
that blow across it, meadows are fresher and greener,
and land-streams ripple merrily down: from the
mountains to grow into calm rivers in the plain.

Behind the rivers, the mountains that were once
their home stand blue in the distance, and upon the
plains the white and lilac crocus, the golden daffodils,
and heavy-scented narcissus make merry in the
spring-tims, waiting for the forget-me-nots to open
their blue eyes upon the banks, and the great yellow
lilies to spread their breasts to the stream when the ~
summer is at its height. ;

There are so many flowers in that country, and the