CHAP, xxxiii.] ASPECTS OF NATURE. 297 



to use bright colours in our garments, and in the decorations 

 of our dwellings, because it was supposed that we should 

 be thereby acting in opposition to the teachings of nature. 

 The argument itself is a very poor one, since it might 

 with equal justice be maintained, that as we possess facul- 

 ties for the appreciation of colours, we should make up for 

 the deficiencies of nature and use the gayest tints in those 

 regions where the landscape is most monotonous. But the 

 assumption on which the argument is founded is totally 

 false, so that even if the reasoning were valid, we need not 

 be afraid of outraging nature, by decorating our houses 

 and our persons with all those gay hues which are so 

 lavishly spread over our fields and mountains, our hedges, 

 woods, and meadows. 



It is very easy to see what has led to this erroneous 

 view of the nature of tropical vegetation. In our hot- 

 houses and at our flower-shows we gather together the 

 finest flowering plants from the most distant regions of 

 the earth, and exhibit them in a proximity to each other 

 which never occurs in nature. A hundred distinct plants, 

 all with bright, or strange, or gorgeous flowers, make a 

 wonderful show when brought together ; but perhaps no 

 two of these plants could ever be seen together in a 

 state of nature, each inhabiting a distant region or a 

 different station. Again, all moderately warm extra- 

 European countries are mixed up with the tropics in 



