THE GARDEN AT HOME 



of form and outline must surely come to the conclusion 

 that a plant is not seen at its best when the balance 

 between leaves and blossoms has been disturbed. A 

 plant of which the flowers have been " improving " for 

 generations, while during the same period its leaves, its 

 manner of growth, its natural grace have, if not depre- 

 ciated, at least been at a standstill such a plant does 

 not compare in natural elegance with the commonest of 

 those that grow wild in the hedgerow. 



Compare for one moment the exquisite grace of the 

 wild Hemlock, a plant in which leaves and flowers are in 

 just proportion, and each specimen in itself is all that 

 a plant should be. Compare this with the stunted growth, 

 the disproportionate flower bunches, the unnatural appear- 

 ance of, say, the Zonal Geranium, the bedding Cockscomb, 

 the florist's Aster, and others. They are " showy," they 

 make a " blaze of colour," they delight one's atrophied 

 sense of the beautiful, they but I might enumerate 

 many ways in which they make a false appeal, an appeal, 

 alas I that finds response in our dulled perceptions, our 

 wrongly directed taste. Yet they fail altogether to bring 

 to the gardener's mind the sense of repose that is charac- 

 teristic of the garden built with natural flowers. 



All this by way of text to the sermon I would 

 preach. I have to justify my theme : hence this cen- 

 sure of all in the garden that is gaudy without grace, 

 that is brilliant without appeal. I am not so bigoted 

 as to condemn the florist, for does he not work in the 



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