OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY. 49 



a truss of Madame Bravy by the Stephanotis, 

 Charles Lefebvre by the AmarylHs, and, hke fair 

 maids of honor 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 expression 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 colors nor the scent. 

 So with all other greenhouse favorites ; they are 

 lovely — Azaleas, Begonias, Pelargoniums, Ericas 

 — but not so lovely as the Rose. 



It is the same out of doors as under glass. 

 The gardens of Bagshot, where nightingales 

 sing, and Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Kalmias 

 bloom — the goodly tents of Waterer in the park 

 of the Regent and in the gardens of Kensington, 

 — are sights to make an old man young; but 

 they show not to our eyes the brightness, the 

 diversity of the Rose's hues, and for our noses 

 they have comparatively nothing — though I do 

 not forget the spicy fragrance of the sweet little 

 Daphne cneorum. 



Glorious, too, are the Dahlias of Slough, of 

 every hue, and in symmetry almost too severely 



4 



