142 BIRDS AND MAN 



doubt seen that same purple-red colour in the evil 

 flower called " grog-blossom," and in the faces of 

 many middle-aged lovers of the bottle, male and 

 female, who would perish before their time, to the 

 great relief of their kindred, and whose actions 

 after they were gone would not smell sweet and 

 blossom in the dust. 



The reds we like best in flowers are the delicate 

 roseate and pinky shades ; they are more to us 

 than the purest and most luminous tints. And 

 here, as with bird notes which delight us on account 

 of their resemblance to fresh, young, highly musical 

 human voices, flowers please us best when they 

 exhibit the loveliest human tints — the apple blossom 

 and the bindweed, musk mallow and almond and 

 wild rose, for example. After these we are most 

 taken with the deeper but soft and not too luminous 

 reds — the red which we admire in the red horse- 

 chestnut blossom, and many other flowers, down 

 to the minute pimpernel. Next come the intense 

 rosy reds seen in the herb-robert and other wild 

 geraniums, valerian, red campion and ragged 

 robin ; and this shade of red, intensified but still 

 soft, is seen in the willow-herb and foxglove, and, 

 still more intensified, in the bell- and small-leafed 

 heath. Some if not all of these pleasing reds have 



