CHAPTEK V. 



BRUNELLA. 



1. IT ought to have been added to the statements of 

 general law in irregular flowers, in Chapter I. of this 

 volume, 6, that if the petals, while brought into rela- 

 tions of inequality, still retain their perfect petal form, 

 and whether broad or narrow, extended or reduced, re- 

 main clearly leaves, as in the pansy, pea, or azalea, and 

 assurrfe no grotesque or obscure outline, the flower, 

 though injured, is not to be thought of as corrupted or 

 misled. But if any of the petals lose their definite char- 

 acter as such, and become swollen, solidified, stiffened, 

 or strained into any other form or function than that of 

 petals, the flower is to be looked upon as affected by 

 some kind o.f constant evil influence ; and, so far as we 

 conceive of any spiritual power being concerned in the 

 protection or affliction of the inferior orders of creatures, 

 it will be felt to bear the aspect of possession by, or pol- 

 lution by, a more or less degraded Spirit.* 



2. I have already enough spoken of the special mani- 



* For the sense in which this word is used throughout my writings, 

 see the definition of it in the 52nd paragraph of the ' Queen of the 

 Air/ comparing with respect to its office in plants, 59-60. 



