THE FLORIST. 289 



flowers, however, are beautiful by a higher than the painter's rule, 

 and when in their utmost regularity disdain the servile trammels 

 of man's imitative art. Themselves and their purposes are alike ori- 

 ginal, and not by copy ; and display their Maker's praise as much in 

 what, to a superficial observer, would appear their imperfections, as 

 in what are called their highest perfections. And therefore the forms 

 on which their beauties can be inscribed with effect are not so limited. 



I have before observed that, theoretically, a globe would be in 

 itself the most perfect form considered simply as a figure ; and the 

 same will apply to a considerable extent as a surface for the 

 reflection of colour. Yet if a globe were formed in any other man- 

 ner than by the convex edges of many petals, as in some of the 

 Ranunculacese or the Amaranthus, it would not answer our ideas of 

 a flower, the essence of which is expansion or opening out, which, 

 indeed, is the meaning of the word "petal." It would, therefore, be 

 out of the question for single flowers ; and, in fact, the casual arch- 

 ing over of its petals into the resemblance of a globe, which takes 

 place in some long- cupped varieties of the Tulip, is a great dissight. 



The section of a globe, as in a well-shaped Tulip, offers the 

 next greatest amount of advantages ; and one of the charms of that 

 magnificent flower is owing to its mathematically perfect form. And 

 in the recent controversy about its exact proportions, I have no 

 doubt of all eventually agreeing in the opinion of those who assert 

 that it ought to be half a globe ; because if it be less, in the same 

 degree that it falls short of a hemisphere does it lose the globular, 

 which is its higher character, and approach the idea of a plane 

 surface with cupped edges — a form actually assumed by some Tulips 

 in the middle of a hot day after they have been some time in flower ; 

 and if it be greater, in the same degree that it exceeds a hemisphere 

 does it fall short of its just expansion both in appearance and 

 effect.* For the half of a hollow globe of the size of a Tulip pre- 

 sents a sufficiently level surface for the most delicate floral markings 

 to be perceived ; and in the case of this flower, which is painted on 

 each surface, enables both the inner and the outer to be seen at 

 the same time. Hence it is the most effective form of any. 



Another way in which an adventitious magnitude is produced is, 

 when the lines both of form and colour are parallel instead of cross- 

 ing each other, and both run outwards (that i?, towards infinity) 

 without a stop. This is well illustrated in the singular difference of 

 effect produced by the three florists' species of Dianthus, — the Car- 

 nation, Picotee, and Pink. Whichever may be the favourite, none, 

 I think, will deny that all the grandeur belongs to the Carnation. 

 The reason of this, though not obvious, is quite intelligible, and arises 

 (to compare small things with great) from the same difference of 

 principle that separates Gothic architecture from classical — the prin- 

 ciple of perpendicular and of horizontal lines. The stripes of the 

 Carnation are disposed longitudinally, the same way with the length 



* I have been much encouraged since this letter was prepared, by seeing, in 

 the Gardeners? Chronicle of some years back, a dissertation upon the points of 

 a good Tulip, in which most of my conclusions are forestalled, though the rea- 

 sons for them, as might he expected, are not given. 



