CHAPTER III 



LIKE all true lovers of flowers, I disdain 

 artificiality, and it positively grieves me to 

 see sham Palms and other plants in pots. I should 

 like to syringe them well. Paper Narcissi and 

 many other sorts of flowers, so beautifully done 

 that it was impossible to say which were real with- 

 out touching them, made their appearance here 

 at a flower show. Of course, they were not com- 

 peting for prizes, but only on exhibition to procure 

 orders ; but it seemed all wrong. I suppose we 

 shall next see sham garden plants warranted to 

 stand the weather. I think, if we hark back to 

 old times, we can see that ^Estheticism robbed us 

 of a great deal of reality when it came marching 

 in and upsetting our balance like a modern Eve. 

 There must have been considerable pretence when 

 people held up a Lily and tried to delude themselves 

 into the belief that they feasted upon it until they 

 were almost faint, or would have had us believe 

 it if they could. The extravagance of ideas has 

 not abated much since that time, and I see no 



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