198 PROSERPINA. 



Aegle, prettier and more classic than Limonia, includes 

 the idea of brightness in the blossom. 



xii. ATHENAIDES. I take Fraxirms into this group, 

 because the mountain ash, in its hawthorn-scented flower, 

 scarlet est of berries, and exquisitely formed and finished 

 leafage, belongs wholly to the floral decoration of our 

 native rocks, and is associated with their human interests, 

 though lightly, not less spiritually, than the olive with 

 the mind of Greece. 



28. The remaining groups are in great part natural ; 

 but I separate for subsequent study five orders of su- 

 preme domestic utility, the Mallows. Currants, Pease, * 

 Cresses, and Cranesbills, from those which, either in 

 fruit or blossom, are for finer pleasure or higher beauty. 

 I think it will be generally interesting for children to 

 learn those five names as an easy lesson, and gradually 

 discover, wondering, the world that they include. I will 

 give their terminology at length, separately. 



29. One cannot, in all groups, have all the divisions 

 of equal importance ; the Mallows are only placed with 

 the other four for their great value in decoration of cot- 

 tage gardens in autumn : and their softly healing qual- 



* The reader must observe that the positions given in this more 

 developed system to any flower do not interfere with arrangements 

 either formerly or hereafter given for memoria technica. The name 

 of the pea, for instance (alata), is to be learned first among the 

 twelve ciuqfoils, p. 214, above ; then transferred to its botanical 

 place. 



