!54 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



vain. There, among a coterie of its kind, in blushing conscious- 

 ness, more sinned against than sinning, stood the poor innocent 

 which was the talk of the town, a Cypripedium mongrel, flanked 

 on either side by the two helpless parent species. 



Twelve years of eager waiting, I was told, had this very week 

 rewarded the "culturist" with the first fruit of this unnatural 

 union. An " improvement," it was called, and one in which the 

 instigator seemed to take as much pride as though the waif had 

 deserved the Lord's blessing. 



Those voluptuous, oppressive roses, too, which, like the fair 

 ones of certain Oriental countries, are admired, it would seem, in 

 proportion to their overgrowth, all " improved," we are told, from 

 "a mere wild rose." O pagan marplot! How had your enter- 

 taining courtesy changed to gall could you have read the vigor- 

 ous pitying comment beneath the non-committal exterior of your 

 guest! How much else of the mysteries of that hybrid depart- 

 ment would have been disclosed to his scientific scrutiny had he 

 dared intimate that he preferred the Lord's Cypripedium even to 

 Smith's, and the eglantine of Parnassus to the " improved Ori- 

 ental Beauty " or the Souvenir de Grande Ducliesse de Paragon, 

 splendidissimum, superbnm grandiftorum ! Six thousand dollars 

 for a mongrel tulip, when a pure type, direct from the divine 

 hand, might be had for the asking ! 



With what a sigh of relief and exaltation of spirit do I leave 

 the degenerate precincts of a garden such as this for the wild 

 garden of innocence and peace! 



Truly has Goethe said, " Some flowers are only lovely to the 

 eye, but others are lovely to the heart." For whatever of purely 

 sensuous or intellectual delight the conservatory may hold for us, 

 it is to the wild garden that we turn for the higher delights of 

 the spirit. Though the apple of the Hesperides bloom there, 

 we shall miss its golden fruit. 



To be brought face to face with one of those wondrous 

 orchids of the tropics the Oncidium papilio or Spirito santo, 

 even robbed of the magic attribute of their native environment 

 is indeed a memorable experience ; but what compared to the 



