FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 217 



be of identical tastes and habits, though 

 these were of the very best; and it would 

 be a tiresome country that brought forth only 

 a single kind of plants. 



The flower of Linnaeus is a flower by it- 

 self, as here and there appears a man who 

 seems, as we say, sui generis. This familiar 

 phrase, by the bye, is literally applicable to 

 Linncea borealis, a plant that spreads over 

 a large part of the northern hemisphere, 

 but everywhere preserves its own specific 

 character; so that, whether it be found in 

 Greenland or in Maryland, on the Alas- 

 kan Islands or in Utah, in Siberia or on the 

 mountains of Scotland, it is always and 

 everywhere the same, a genus of one 

 species. Diversities of soil and climate 

 make no impression upon its originality. 

 If it live at all, it must live according to 

 its own plan. 



The aster, on the contrary, has a special 

 talent for variation. Like some individuals 

 of another sort, it is born to adapt itself 

 to circumstances. Dr. Gray enumerates no 

 less than one hundred and ninety-six North 

 American species and varieties, many of 

 which shade into each other with such end- 



