. Through the year with Thoreau. the fairest of all our flowers, should also be one ofthe rarest, — for the most part not seen at all. I thinkthat no other but myself in Concord annually findsit. That so queenly a flower should annually bloomso rarely and in such withdrawn and secret placesas to be rarely seen by man! The village belle neversees this more delicate belle of the swamp. How littlerelation between our life and its! Most of us neversee it or hear of it. The seasons go by to us as if itwere not. A beauty reared in the shade of a convent,who has never strayed beyond the convent bell.
. Through the year with Thoreau. the fairest of all our flowers, should also be one ofthe rarest, — for the most part not seen at all. I thinkthat no other but myself in Concord annually findsit. That so queenly a flower should annually bloomso rarely and in such withdrawn and secret placesas to be rarely seen by man! The village belle neversees this more delicate belle of the swamp. How littlerelation between our life and its! Most of us neversee it or hear of it. The seasons go by to us as if itwere not. A beauty reared in the shade of a convent,who has never strayed beyond the convent bell. Journal, vi, 337, 338. June 15, 1852. Here also, at Well Meadow Head,I see the fringed purple orchis, unexpectedly beauti-ful, though a pale lilac purple, — a large spike ofpurple flowers. Why does it grow there only, far ina swamp, remote from public view.^^ It is somewhatfragrant, reminding me of the ladys-slipper. Is itnot significant that some rare and delicate and beau-tiful flowers should be found only in unfrequented. C 49 ] wild swamps? There is the mould in which the orchisgrows. Yet I am not sure but this is a fault in theflower. It is not quite perfect in all its parts. A beau-tiful flower must be simple, not spiked. It must havea fair stem and leaves. This stem is rather naked,and the leaves are for shade and moisture. It is fair-est seen rising from amid brakes and hellebore, itslower part or rather naked stem concealed. Wherethe most beautiful wild-flowers grow, there mansspirit is fed, and poets grow. It cannot be high-col-ored, growing in the shade. Nature has taken nopains to exhibit it, and few that bloom are ever seenby mortal eyes. The most striking and handsomelarge wild-flower of the year thus far that I haveseen. Journal, iv, 103, 104. C 50 ] WHITE POND June 14, 1853. To White Pond. How beautifullythe northeast shore curves! The pines and othertrees so perfect on their water side. There is no raw-ness nor imperfection to the edge of the wood in thisc
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