FLOWER-SHOWS. 71 



Pictures of flowers such as these, if only the 

 artist have some sense of colour and some refine- 

 ment of taste, would give a real and almost a 

 new pleasure to us all. 



But there must be no artistic grouping, or 

 representing of things as they should be rather 

 than as they are. The work must be conscien- 

 tious, as in the case of a great living sculptor 

 who, having to carve an ivy plant upon a tablet, 

 went himself to study the form of growing ivy, 

 and found how entirely different it is from the 

 conventional wreaths of the ordinary marble- 

 mason. 



There is one question in connection with English 

 horticulture to which at first sight it does not 

 seem quite easy to give a satisfactory answer. 

 Are the flower-shows, the number of which is 

 constantly increasing, an advantage or not ? They 

 certainly stimulate the production of magnificent 

 fruit, of beautiful florist-flowers, and of handsome 

 stove and greenhouse plants. But how do they 

 affect the gardens in which these prize specimens 

 are grown ? It is mere matter of fact that, when 



