GUELDER ROSE. 97 



only object being to produce a mass of 

 coloured surface, irrespective of use to the 

 plant. So in double daisies they turn the 

 inner fertile flowers into barren rays; in ?he 

 dahlia they cultivate out the central florets, 

 and make the others mere useless tubular 

 blossoms ; and in roses they degrade the 

 stamens into shapeless and supernumerary 

 petals. Such artificial flowers are never 

 beautiful to a botanical eye, because they 

 lack symmetry and order. When once you 

 have learnt to understand and admire the 

 simple and effective plan upon which all 

 flower architecture is based, these distorted 

 and monstrous blossoms have no more 

 attraction for your eye than the calf with five 

 legs or the two-headed nightingale has for 

 any cultivated taste. 



Here is another curious point about the 

 guelder rose. If I cut open one of the very 

 young flower-buds, and look at it carefully 

 with my powerful little pocket lens, I can see 

 that in this early stage it has three cells in 



ii 



