Page:National Geographic Magazine, vol 31 (1917).djvu/503



==Our State Flowers== The Floral Emblems Chosen by the Commonwealths By the Editor, with paintings by Mary E. Eaton

The National Geographic Magazine in this number prints as its annual tribute to the “children of summer” pictures of the blossoms which have been chosen as the floral favorites of the various States.

Realizing that an emblem of natural beauty is as significant and essential as a State seal, motto, or flag, twenty-six States, more than one-half of the nation's commonwealths, have formally, by legislative action and gubernatorial approval, selected State flowers.

Six other States have accepted the verdict of the school children as the voice of the people, while six others have adopted floral emblems by common consent, mainly under the leadership of the club women of the respective commonwealths. The ten remaining States and the District of Columbia have either taken no action at all or else action possessing so little weight of authority that the several Secretaries of State do not recognize it (see index, below).

Although thirty-eight of the States have in one way or another expressed their preferences and chosen their flower queens, this is the first attempt that has been made to assemble in a single publication color paintings and descriptions of all the State flowers.

These pictures, like those of previous flower series appearing in the Geographic, are very costly reproductions of the exquisitely beautiful paintings from