Cardinal Flower

“…for they seem like flowers from a palace garden that are
away from home masquerading and waiving ceremony, and taking the
country air. They wear a color that is the sign of high ecclesiastical rank, and
the temper of their minds would make them furies if they fought for church
and state. They are not radicals; they are tories and aristocrats; they belong to
the old nobility among flowers.”
Sarah Orne Jewett (“River Driftwood,” 1881)