Flowers and Gardens 



Lilies and Water-lilies, but they can never 

 fill the cup and expand it into a head, 

 because that would spoil the stamens, which 

 are the life and light of the whole. Yet 

 not even here are the single flowers to be 

 considered as driven from the field. What 

 they cannot do separately they can when 

 united in a mass. The heads of the 

 larger Rhododendrons can vie even with 

 the double Peonies in majesty, and have, 

 besides, that life which the Peony lacks. 

 But this kind of dignity is comparatively 

 rare amongst single flowers, whilst it is the 

 especial boast of the better class of the 

 double. The lower double flowers aim 

 chiefly at a patterned neatness, as we see 

 in the Hepatica, the white Wood Anemone, 

 the white Ranunculus, and others. Not- 

 withstanding this confession, we must not 

 be too hasty, and say that this kind of 

 dignity cannot be found at all in the single 

 flowers taken separately. There is some- 

 thing approaching it in the Iris, and other 

 such blossoms where the stamens lie con- 

 cealed. Blossoms of this sort more nearly 

 approximate to double ones in their effect. 

 They give up expression for magnificence, 

 and gloriously lovely as they are for I 

 think few plants are lovelier than the Irises 

 we feel here an inferiority to the open 

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