And, through dead leaves of hope shall spring
Afresh the flowers of God!
PLATE LXI
TRAILING ARBUTUS.—E. repens.
TWIN-FLOWER.—L. borealis.
Twin-flower.
Linnæa borealis. Honeysuckle Family.
Stem.—Slender, creeping and trailing. Leaves.—Rounded, shining and evergreen. Flowers.—Growing in pairs, delicate pink, fragrant, nodding on thread-like, upright flower-stalks. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.—Narrowly bell-shaped, five-lobed, hairy within. Stamens.—Four, two shorter than the others. Pistil.—One.
Whoever has seen
—beneath dim aisles, in odorous beds,
The slight Linnæa hang its twin-born heads,[[5]]
will not soon forget the exquisite carpeting made by its nodding pink flowers and dark shining leaves; or the delicious perfume which actually filled the air and drew one’s attention to the spot from which it was exhaled, tempting one to exclaim with Richard Jefferies, “Sweetest of all things is wild-flower air!” That this little plant should have been selected as “the monument of the man of flowers” by the great Linnæus himself, bears testimony to his possession of that appreciation of the beautiful which is supposed to be lacking in men of long scientific training. I believe that there is extant at least one contemporary portrait of Linnæus in which he wears the tiny flowers in his buttonhole. The rosy twin-blossoms are borne on thread-like, forking flower-stalks, and appear in June in the deep, cool, mossy woods of the North.