294 THE FERN PARADISE. 



than usual, it is seldom that the effect produced 

 is striking. The conservatory when an adjunct 

 of the drawing-room, and immediately con- 

 tiguous to it supplies in some degree the re- 

 quirements of a refined taste ; but dwelling 

 rooms are mostly subjected to the despotic 

 sway of a system of conventional ornamenta- 

 tion. Even rigid conventionalism, however, pays 

 homage to nature, by calling artistic effort into 

 requisition in order to produce petrified imi- 

 tations of leaves and flowers. The high art of 

 the painter and sculptor, and the ruder arts of 

 house decorating, are employed in this work 

 of imitation ; but the result often beautiful and 

 striking as an artistic success pales before the 

 exquisite reality of nature itself. 



Why then do we not sweep away from our 

 dwelling-houses the rigid conventionalism which 

 is content to represent nature in stereotyped 

 lines in places where she is only too ready to 

 come herself, in all her chaste and simple yet 

 inimitable loveliness ? Her image may still be 

 preserved in stereotype where she cannot come 



