INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



can picture no paradise nor after-life, however splendid, 

 where a certain magnificent Beech in the Sainte-Baume were 

 out of place, or a certain Cypress or a certain Umbrella-pine 

 of Florence or of a charming hermitage near my own house, 

 any one of which afifords to the passer-by a model of all the 

 great movements of necessary resistance, of peaceful courage, 

 of soaring, of gravity, of silent victory and of perseverance. 



26 

 But I am wandering too far afield: I intended only to 

 remark, with reference to the flower, that nature, when she 

 wishes to be beautiful, to please, to delight and to prove her- 

 self happy, does almost what we should do had we her treas- 

 ures at our disposal. I know that, speaking thus, I am 

 speaking a little like the bishop who marvelled that Provi- 

 dence always made the great river flow past the big cities; 

 but it is difficult to look upon these things from any other 

 than the human point of view. Let us, then, from this 

 point of view, consider that we should know very few signs or 

 expressions of happiness if we did not know the flower. In 

 order to judge of its power of gladness and beauty, one must 

 live in a part of the country where it reigns undivided, such 

 as the corner of Provence, between the Siagne and the Loupj, 



[lOl] 



