12 



dictates her study ; and our gardens and conservato- 

 ries would shine conspicuously by the harmonious 

 i)lei)ding of true s])ecies with curious and costly va- 

 rieties. The perfection of her works is lost in the 

 mutilations of art. We can admire a fine column, 

 (yr gaze with just admiration on a splendid edifice ; 

 but even these shrink in comparison, and cannot bear 

 the test of her unrivalled skill. If we carry our op- 

 erations into her precincts, we cannot improve, we 

 must mar. 



But, while thus advocating a more general intro- 

 duction and cultivation of species, it would be equal- 

 ly wrong, as presumptous, to deny, altogether, the 

 merits of horticultural skill, in the production of hy- 

 brids, or varieties. For splendid ornament, a group of 

 HKtny-petalled flowers is, indeed, more gaudily attrac- 

 tive, for its borrowed excellence, than the simple pro- 

 totype of a genus ; and, undoubtedly, could he,* 

 whose name is borne down to posterity by a single 

 but universal favorite flower, witness the wonderful 

 changes which have taken place in its organization, 

 now bearing the envious title of some peerless beauty 

 or mighty conqueror, he would scarcely recognize the 

 unpretending inhabitant of a Mexican clime. The 

 modest violet is still now, as ever, attractive in its 

 meek humility ; and the first vernal harbinger, with 

 the last lingering blossoms of a fading year, are and 

 ever will be of more intense interest in their native, 

 unadorned simplicity, as monitors or ])romisers of 

 what has past or is to come. 



Botany is not, however, by any means confined to 



* Dahl. 



