14 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



You observe the flower, and the three plush 

 spots on the lower petals, and do not perceive it 

 to be very different, or, to tell the truth, very 

 superior to anything you have seen before. But 

 he perceives it and has already marked the plant. 



" This we will multiply," he says, " in time you 

 will see this in the catalogues. You shall give it a 

 name." 



You give one, the name of the boat that brought 

 you to Holland perhaps, or perhaps "Amethyst," 

 in honour of the purple tone which den Heer per- 

 ceives, although you do not. And then you turn 

 to admire another flower, a perfect blue, which 

 seems very beautiful. But the chances are your 

 admiration is misplaced. 



" It is nothing," den Heer says with a shrug, 

 at the same time cutting the bloom for you with 

 the smallest and sharpest of knives. " There are 

 many as fine, many better, the Darling, the Sol- 

 fatarc, both more blue. Did this, now, show any 

 rosy markings, that would be something indeed in 

 Iris hispanica." 



It no doubt would, though possibly not an 

 improvement in the eyes of the uninitiated. If you 

 are of this opinion, you do not say so, but follow 

 den Heer among the flowers, noticing how one here 



