THE CARNATION. 53 



to a plain purple ; a Scarlet Flake to a plain scarlet, 

 and so on through all their varieties. A flower so 

 run loses all its estimation in the eyes of a florist, 

 and occasions him frequent regret and disappoint- 

 ment: for the chance of its returning to its true 



' O 



colour is as one to one hundred. In fact, it may be 

 considered to him as lost. 



" So it falls out, 



That what we have we prize not to the worth, 

 While we enjoy it ; but, being lack'd and lost, 

 Why then we reck the value ; then we find 

 The virtue, that possession would not shew us^ 

 While it was ours." 



What is it, then, that causes this changeable dis- 

 position and suffusion of colour ? Sir Humphry 

 Davy, perhaps, could have given a correct solution to 

 the question, and suggested the proper means of pre- 

 vention. Many attribute it to an over-richness of 

 the compost ; that is, when too great a proportion of 

 dung is mixt with the loam, I am inclined to think 

 that there is a great degree of truth in the observa- 

 tion, but I am far from imagining that this is the 

 only cause ; for I have remarked, that Carnations, 



