THE FIELD AND THE GARDEN. 103 



ingenuity required for its arrangement; but I did not 

 praise it sufficiently to gratify his ambition, and he ex- 

 pressed his surprise at my want of enthusiasm. I soon 

 perceived that he was, in the most approved sense, a man 

 of taste and of " aesthetic culture " ; that he had a keen 

 eye for any improvement in a flower as manifested in a 

 new combination of hues or rare development of form, 

 and great skill in the arrangement of his borders. More 

 than all, he was so much of a scientific botanist that I 

 was instructed by his discourse no less than I had been 

 delighted by my interview with his humble neighbor. 



He alluded to my visit in the old lady's garden, and 

 spoke in a comical humor of her sunflowers and her admi- 

 ration of them. I replied that whole nations had wor- 

 shipped the sun ; and why should not our pious friend 

 worship the sunflower, which is typical of that luminary ? 

 This religion of hers was a proof of her admiration of 

 greatness, in which she resembled the rest of the world. 

 The public has never ceased to admire big trees and mam- 

 moth squashes; and a great sunflower seems to me as 

 worthy of our idolatry as a great water-lily. I confessed 

 that I could join heartily iii.the respect she paid even to 

 her burdocks, that bear a profusion of flowers, consisting 

 of little globular beads of the most exquisite finish, with 

 tufts of rose-colored fringe, each one a gem fit to adorn 

 the bosom of a sylph. These plants are also of a giant 

 size, with a leaf as large as that of a fan-palm. I added 

 that I felt a homely regard for flowers, not in proportion 

 as they were' " far-fetched and dear-bought," but as they 

 are adapted to certain important ends connected with our 

 happiness, independent of our ambition. I left him in a 

 state of surprise at my avowal of so many heresies which 

 he thought disproved my sincerity. But I am not able 

 to perceive the superiority of his taste compared with 

 that of my female friend. I cannot understand why mere 



