FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 209 
assistance. They are recognized afar as 
persons to be let alone. Yet they, too, like 
their floral representatives, have a good side. 
If they do not give help, they seldom ask it. 
Once a year they may actually “do a hand- 
some thing,” as the common expression is; 
but they cannot put off their own nature; 
their very generosity pricks the hand that 
receives it, and when old Time cuts them 
down with his scythe (what should we do 
without this famous husbandman, unkindly 
as we. talk of him?) there will be no great 
mourning. 
Is it then an unpardonable misdemeanor 
for a plant to defend itself against attack 
and extermination? Has the duty of non- 
resistance no exceptions nor abatements in 
the vegetable kingdom? That would be in- 
deed a hard saying; for what would become 
of our universal favorite, the rose? On this 
point there may be room for a diversity of 
opinion; but for one, I cannot wish the wild 
rose disarmed, lest, through the recklessness 
of its admirers, what is now one of the com- 
monest of our wayside ornaments should 
grow to be a rarity. I esteem the rose a 
patrician, and fairly entitled to patrician 
