Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/134

Rh head of male-flowers waves merrily in the wind, quite like a bon vivant, and scatters abroad his pollen like a cloud. Lower down, and enclosed in the stem, is placed the ear of maize-corn, enveloped in pale-green sheaths, which at the season of the blossoming open themselves a little at the top, in order to give room for a tuft of brilliant silky thread, varying in all the colours of the rainbow, but principally of violet and gold. It does not come very far out, and withdraws itself again after the ear, by means of it, has saluted the air and the light, like some of those small white plumes upon the pistils of the rye and wheat with us. These grand silky tufts were just now out, and I broke off one of these heads, and carefully unwrapped the one green garment after another. Seven green coverings did I thus remove, each inner one becoming of a still softer tint and still finer texture than the preceding, the nearer they approached the ear. Most cautiously did I remove the last pale green covering, and a spirally enwrapped veil of brilliant, white, silky thread streamed softly down from the rich, pearly ear; most lovely, most inexpressibly rich and pure! Each corn-pearl had its silken-thread, all were turned to one side, and wound round the ear, and united themselves at the top, where they pressed towards the light, and received colouring from its rays.

A spirit of worship arose in my soul at the sight of that hidden but now revealed glory, and I could not but recall the words of the Saviour; “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these!” It was infinitely beautiful, and I wished that you could have seen it with me.

I must mention among the flowers the tiger-lily, on account of its unusual splendour. In the evening I saw a moth fluttering over the flowers, which was so like a humming-bird in its manner of flying and sipping from the flowers, with a short beak-like proboscis, as it fluttered