i _ INTRODUCTION 929 
Obi—the most beautiful spectacle, he says, 
which he had ever witnessed. Behind him 
were barren rocks and the snows of winter, in 
front a great plain, not indeed entirely green, 
or green only in places, and for the rest 
covered by three flowers, the purple Siberian 
Iris, the golden Hemerocallis, and the silvery 
~ Narcissus — green, purple, gold, and white, 
as far as the eye could reach. 
Wallace tells us that he himself has de- 
rived the keenest enjoyment from his sense 
of colour : — ae 
“The heavenly blue of the firmament, the 
glowing tints of sunset, the exquisite purity 
of the snowy mountains, and the endless 
shades of green presented by the verdure-clad 
surface of the earth, are a never- failing 
source of pleasure to all who enjoy the ines- 
timable gift of sight. Yet these constitute, 
as it were, but the frame and background of 
amarvellous and ever-changing picture. In 
contrast with these broad and soothing tints, 
we have presented to us in the vegetable and 
animal worlds an infinite variety of objects 
adorned with the most beautiful and most 
