JUNE. 167 



matured by judgment. I apprehend it is an easy matter to find an 

 individual in whom all these requisites are combined. Do I possess 

 them? I blush not to answer — No. 



Secondly. With a very large proportion of men — less so, perhaps, 

 with women — there exists a natural defect in the eye, or rather in its 

 nerv-es, which renders them incapable of appreciating colour. There 

 are some persons who can see no difference, save that of form, in the 

 leaves and the /fo^c^r^ of a scarlet Geranium. I know of many to whom 

 scarlets and crimsons appear identical., and who class hlacs, purples and 

 \'iolets, indiscriminately as blues. I believe the number of those who 

 can distinguish the seven prismatic colours to be much smaller than 

 would be generally supposed. Not the least curious part of this defect 

 of \'ision is, that the indi-viduals in whom it is present are, for the most 

 part, ignorant of its existence; and the discovery, if made at all, is 

 usually the result of accident. An analogous infirmity in a sister sense 

 is quite as common, perhaps even more so ; although few will venture 

 to admit themselves to be the subjects of it. I allude to the want of 

 ear — as it is popularly termed — for music. I take it that colour is to 

 the eye what sound is to the ear; the harmonious combinations of the 

 one affording as much delight to the former as those of the other yield 

 to the latter organ. It by no means follows that the indi^'idual who is 

 unable to discriminate between the shades of colour is therefore alto- 

 gether insensible to colour itself; nor that he who cannot tell one note 

 from another is incapable of deriving pleasure from the sound of 

 music. I can call to my memory^ nothing more exquisite than the 

 silvery tones of ]\Iahbran ; the recollection of martial music ^vill keep 

 me awake half through the night ; and yet my auditory apparatus is 

 so strangely constituted, that I cannot, for the hfe of me, distinguish 

 between the " Old Hundredth " and " Rule Britannia." Let us return 

 to our subject. 



Thirdly. There is yet another cause, no less important than the 

 preceding, which will be found constantly to baffle the exhibitor in 

 setting up his blooms, and which, as it has its origin in the flowers 

 themselves, is very much beyond his control. A man shall have an 

 artistic mind, a refined taste, and an eye able to discriminate with the 

 utmost nicety every appreciable shade of colour, and yet — unless he 

 grows on an enormous scale — it ^^'ill rarely happen that he can put 

 together twenty-four dissimilar blooms in such a manner as to satisfy 

 himself with the effect produced by the combination. When an 

 intending exhibitor selects his flowers, he naturally seeks first for those 

 which are most perfect in form ; and it will generally happen that when 

 he puts them together there \\\]\. be found an undue preponderance of one 

 or more shades of colour. To reject these f^r blooms more desirable, 

 perhaps, for the sake of arrangement, but inferior in form, would be to 

 incur too great a risk. The consequence is, that the general effect pro- 

 duced by the stand, as a whole, must, of necessity, become a secondary 

 consideration. If I could procure on a given day just what flowers I 

 would prefer to make up a stand of twenty-four, I think I should choose 

 one pure white, one blush, two yellow, two edged or tipped, having a 

 white, and two a yellow ground ; two maroon, two crimson, two purple, 

 and two dark shaded ; the remaining eight should be made up with 



