are surrounded by the most beautiful forms of vegetation, because many of them are 

 at the same time most useful to man. Who can doubt that these qualities are united 

 in the banana, the cocoa-nut, the many kinds of palms, the orange, and the bread- 

 fruit tree j * * * 



Epithet after epithet was found too weak to convey to those who have not 

 visited the inter-tropical regions the sensation of delight which the mind expe- 

 riences. * * * In my last walk I stopped again and again to gaze on those 

 beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever an impression, which at the time 

 I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the orange tree, the cocoa-nut, the 

 palm, the mango, the tree-fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate, but the 

 thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene must fade away; yet they 

 will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, a picture full of indistinct but most beautiful 

 figures. — {Dartvin). 



Like a beautiful flower full of colour but without scent are the fine but the 

 fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly. But like a beautiful flower full 

 of colour and full of scent are the fine and fruitful words of him who acts accordingly, 

 —The Path of Viituts— (Buddhist.) 



Do you wonder why poets talk so much about flowers ? Did you ever hear 

 of a poet did not talk about them? * * * They will bloom over and over 

 again in poems, as in the summer fields, to the end of time, always old and always 

 new. — (O. W. Holmes.) 



Pink and red flowers almost invariably revert in many individuals to white . 

 Indeed, there is probably not a single blossom of these colours in England of which 

 white specimens may not occasionally be gathered. * * * Almost all pink or red 

 flowers become white with the greatest readiness under cultivation. * * * "BhxQ 

 flowers in nearly every case produce abundant red, pink and white varieties in a state 

 of nature. * * * In an immense number of cases blue appears as a late modifi- 

 cation of red, the bud or young petals being stiU of that colour, and only deepening 

 into blue as the flower opens. — {Gratit Allen.) 



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