Blue !la(Ss, yellow flails, tlaSs all trcckled, 

 Which will you take? yellow, blue, speckled! 

 Take which you will, speckled, blue, yellow, 

 Each in its way has not a fellow. 



C. Kosidli. 



jA.p:rii^ii 



nd 



itself was strong within mc, although when tlic group was finished 1 

 could see there was something very much wanting. 



Oh, those early studies ! I have a few of them still in ni\- folios ; 

 and after the lapse of years of practice, how crude, how hard and 

 " ed^ry " they seem ! And yet I have a sentimental feeling against 

 destroying them, both for the old-time memories they recall, and the 

 lessons they have taught. In all of them I can see this fatal tendency to 

 make too much of each flower individually, regardless of its true place in 

 the scheme of design of the whole. 



I remember, when I came in from the garden with a lovely, freshly 

 plucked rose, how I could not resist the temptation to fit it into a space 

 in my group, where I could look right into the heart of its unfolding 

 petals, although, to take its place properly, it ought to have shown only 

 its profile or its back. As you may imagine, a vase filled with roses, all 

 pointing their little noses towards me, however carefully painted, did not 

 compose very well pictorial 1\-, and I soon began to see, if I wanted my 

 work to have any artistic value, I must work on very different lines. 



In the course of business I have sometimes (rather unwillingly and 

 under protest) had to return to these earlier methods, when I have 

 been asked to undertake commissions for catalogues for well-known 

 horticultural firms. You will find your ardent horticulturist cares less 



for pictorial effect than a rather " niggling " drawing of a show flower. 



He may admire an artistic drawing himself, but the public, for 



whom he caters in these books, does 



not always appreciate any subtleties 



of light and shadow composition, 



but insists that each flower shall 



show its own special characteristics 



in the most blatantly insistent way 



it can. 



Well, these things must be done 



sometimes, and done faithfully, with 



knowledge and care ; but \ou can 



understand, after a dose of this kind 



of work, how delightful it is to let 



one's own ideas run riot once more, 



leaving these trammelled paths to get 



back to the less stilted beauties of 



field and garden. 



I hope, when the spray of apple- 

 blossom is finished, you have still time 



to make further studies of " The fair 



profusion that o'crspreads the spring " 



in this charming month of sunshine 



and showers. 



30 



