54 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



Everything, then, may be utterly capable of 

 defence, and yet have a smile for suitable occasions. 

 An element of reciprocity is, and must always have 

 been, the mainstay of every condition and circum- 

 stance, and it is essential that flowers should be, 

 and should always have been, able to smile as well 

 as to scowl. It would never have done for them 

 to be all bristles, and without a warm corner in 

 their hearts for whatever was deserving of it. 

 They would have suffered, probably to extinction, 

 had this been so, as everything of a solely bristling 

 nature must inevitably suffer. Even the ferocious 

 alligator has a kindly tolerance and welcome for a 

 certain little bird, for whom the saurian's fearsome 

 armament has no terrors. 



For this reason I incline to think that the old 

 adage, ' What is one man's meat is another man's 

 poison,' applies equally to flowers. Following the 

 rule for efficiency and prosperity, a plant can only 

 benefit through being poisonous for one visitor and 

 wholesome for another ; or, putting it in another 

 way, tastes differ, and therefore a plant will, with 

 one and the same gesture, both repulse and beckon. 

 We have all heard of the man who could not live 

 in the country because of ' the wretched smell of 

 violets.' It is a case in point. This man, evidently, 



