IV. GIULIETTA. 93 



and braided with fretwork of silver, never tarnished or 

 hoarfrost that grew brighter in the sun. But it was not 

 to be, and after a few hints of what might be done in 

 this kind, the Fate, or Folly, or, on recent theories, the 

 extreme fitness and consequent survival, of the Thistles 

 and Dandelions, entirely drives the fringed Lucias and 

 blue-flushing niilkworts out of common human neigh- 

 bourhood, to live recluse lives with the memories of the 

 abbots of Cluny, and pastors of Piedmont. 



12. I have called the Giulietta * \Aue-flushing ^ because 

 it is one of the group of exquisite flowers which at the 

 time of their own blossoming, breathe their colour into 

 the surrounding leaves and supporting stem. Yery not- 

 ably the Grape hyacinth and Jura hyacinth, and some 

 of the Yestals, empurpling all their green leaves even 

 to the ground: a quite distinct nature in the flower, ob- 

 serve, this possession of a power to kindle the leaf and 

 stem with its own passion, from that of the heaths, roses, 

 or lilies, where the determined bracts or calices assert 

 themselves in opposition to the blossom, as little pine- 

 leaves, or mosses, or brown-paper packages, and the like. 



13. The Giulietta, however, is again entirely separate 

 from the other leaf-flushing blossoms, in that, after the 

 two green leaves next the flower have glowed with its 

 blue, while it lived, they do not fade or waste with it, but 

 return to their own former green simplicity, and close 

 over it to protect the seed. I only know this to be the 

 case with the Giulietta Regina ; but suppose it to be 



