OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



VII 



OLD flowers, I said. I was wrong; for 

 they are not so old. When we study 

 their history and investigate their pedi- 

 grees, we learn with surprise that most 

 of them, down to the simplest and 

 commonest, are new beings, freedmen, 

 exiles, newcomers, visitors, foreign- 

 ers. Any botanical treatise will reveal 

 their origins. The Tulip, for instance 

 (remember La Bruyere's "Solitary," 

 "Oriental," "Agate," and "Cloth of 

 Gold"), came from Constantinople in 

 the sixteenth century. The Ranuncula, 

 the Lunaria, the Maltese Cross, the 

 Balsam, the Fuchsia, the African Mari- 

 gold, or Tagetes Ere6la, the Rose 



C so} 



