116 THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



be in shape not unlike an enormous Forget-me-not 

 blossom. When fully open it measures three feet across. 

 It has a most disagreeable smell ; and we should hardly 

 care to have one in our rooms. 



One day, when walking on the Surrey Downs, I 

 caught sight of a minute floweret at my feet, growing 

 low in the grass. Plucking it, I had a good look 

 through a magnifying-glass ; and in a moment the wee 

 thing, so tiny and insignificant, had changed into an 

 exquisite flower, delicate and lovely, with pure white 

 petals, beautifully marked, just like some grand hot- 

 house bloom. 



It is strange what shoals of lovely things are all 

 around us in Nature, which we do not notice ; which 

 indeed often we cannot see without help from a micro- 

 scope. And yet, no matter how small or how hidden 

 away such things may be, their make and their finish 

 are perfect. Nothing in Nature is ever " scamped " 

 or done anyhow in a hurry, because " nobody will see ! " 



Between these two extremes among flowers, the very 

 big and the very little, lie immense numbers of kinds, 

 far beyond our power to reckon. 



If we began only to talk of their shapes, their colours, 

 their markings, we might go on for hours. And then 

 their scents ! Not all sweet, certainly. But many are 

 delightful — such as those of Roses, Carnations, Violets, 

 Lilacs, Heliotropes, Jessamines, Mignonettes, Lilies-of- 

 the-Valley. 



At least five hundred different scents are known, one 

 and all manufactured in little Plant-workshops. 



It seems clear that Flowers are meant to be a joy to 



