OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY. 49 



perfume ; and comparing the individual flowers, which 

 would a lover take to his beloved — which would his dar- 

 ling, herself 



*' A Rosebud, set with little wilful thorns, 

 And sweet as English air can make her," 



osculate and pet the most ? 



And the stove, truly, is a gladness and refreshment — 

 gay, when all without is bleak and dismal, with the golden 

 Allamandas, the rosy Dipladenia, so truthfully termed 

 amabilis, the bridal Stephanotis, the gorgeous Amaryllids, 

 the Bougainvilleas, Francisceas, &c. ; but what will you find 

 there like the Rose? Place Marechal Niel by the Alla- 

 manda, Louise Peyronney by the Dipladenia, a truss of 

 Madame Bravy by the Stephanotis, Charles Lefebvre by 

 the Amaryllis, and, like fair maids of honour and beautiful 

 ladies in waiting, these inmates of the hothouse must bow 

 before their queen. 



It is the same in the conservatory. The Camellia is of 

 faultless form, but it has not the grace, the ease, the expres- 

 sion of the Rose. It is like a face whereof every feature 

 is perfect, but which lacks the changing charms of feeling 

 and intellect. Neither has it the colours nor the scent. 



So with all other greenhouse favourites ; they are lovely 



D 



