Wild flowers as they grow, photographed in colour direct from nature . They Grow sword-like leaves rise directly from the marshyground and stand erect as bodyguards beside thetall straight stalk which bears aloft the large goldflower and pointed buds. No wonder the Frankishkings of old, when they first stood before theirpeople, bore a flowering spike of Iris as almost prehistoric times it has stood as thesymbol of power and majesty; it was dedicated toJuno Queen of Olympus, and was the origin of thesceptre; the three leaves of its blossoms typifiedfaith, wisdom and valour. The Eg3
Wild flowers as they grow, photographed in colour direct from nature . They Grow sword-like leaves rise directly from the marshyground and stand erect as bodyguards beside thetall straight stalk which bears aloft the large goldflower and pointed buds. No wonder the Frankishkings of old, when they first stood before theirpeople, bore a flowering spike of Iris as almost prehistoric times it has stood as thesymbol of power and majesty; it was dedicated toJuno Queen of Olympus, and was the origin of thesceptre; the three leaves of its blossoms typifiedfaith, wisdom and valour. The Eg3^tians placedit on the brow of the Sphinx and on the sceptre oftheir kings. France is specially bound up with the Iris. Thelegend goes that early in the sixth century KingClovis, a heathen, was on the point of defeat inone of his many battles. His own gods appearinguseless in the circumstances, he bethought him ofthe God of his Christian wife Clothilde, and prayedfor victory. He conquered and became a Christian,and, urged by his wife, replaced the three toads on 26. YELLOW FLAG The Yellow Flag his banner by three Irises, the Iris being very speciallythe Virgins flower and of deep Christian Cathedral of Florence is dedicated to SantaMaria del Fiore (Our Lady of the Flower), theflower referred to being the Iris, which is still theemblem of the city, and always greatly in evidencethere. Six centuries later, Louis VII. assumed it onhis banner in his Crusade against the Saracens, andit is said that it became known as Fleur de Louis,corrupted into Fleur de Luce (as Flower de Luce itis stiU known), and then into Fleur de Lys, or Lis— the Lily Flower. It is curious how the idea of alily is bound up with the Iris, considering it hasnothing whatever to do with the lily family. Long-fellow, quite incorrectly, apostrophises it as beauti-ful lily, and Ruskin is more poetical than accuratewhen he refers to the Fleur de Lys having a swordfor its leaf and a lily for its
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondonnewyorkcasse
