A Descent into Particulars 69 



The various talents and gifts observable in the human 

 family have their equivalent in the way that certain plants 

 emphasize portions of their organism. In the Venetian su- 

 mach, or smoke tree (Rhus cotinus) we see the culmination of 

 the plant in the curious extension and division of the petioles 

 of the flowers, which is often mistaken for its bloom. Volum- 

 nia, the goddess of petioles, must preside over its life. In Eu- 

 phorbia heterophylla and E. pulcherrima, known as Mexican 

 Fire and poinsettia, the beauty lies in the scarlet bracts that 

 surround the inconspicuous flowers; in the bittersweet, it is 

 the scarlet aril surrounding the berry; in the Phy sails Fran- 

 cheti, or Japanese lantern plant, it is the brilliant red fruiting 

 calyx. In some plants the chief value is in the foliage, which 

 may be richly colored, or soft gray, white, or woolly; some 

 have beautiful seed pods like honesty (Lunaria biennis); 

 some are prized solely for their fragrance, as mignonette, boy 

 love, Ambrosia artemesiafolia, sweet fern, lemon verbena. 

 Some are strange and grotesque in shape, as the Calceolaria 

 and lady's-slipper. 



There are many plants that offend my sensibilities, not only 

 because of their manner of growth, odor, habits, but they seem 

 to stand for something distinctly unpleasant or irritating. I 

 look upon blotched, spotted and streaked flowers as offensive 

 vulgarians; colored lilies represent bad taste and loud talking 

 in the floral world. Some do not fulfill the promise of youth, 

 as, for example, the common mullein. I know of nothing 

 more alluring than a young mullein unbitten by ambition. Its 

 low rosette of woolly gray leaves are all that one can desire, 

 and if it were content to remain a modest tuft, and send up a 

 straight leafless stalk not over two feet high, and open its 

 spike of flowers at one time, the mullein would be incompar- 

 able. As it is, it reminds one of a person of simple worth who 

 suddenly loses a sense of proportion and drags his unripe vir- 



