THE CHEQUERED DAFFODIL 385 



we have. This effect is due to the smallness of the 

 tessellated squares, since at a distance of a few feet 

 the dark violet maroon kills or absorbs the bright 

 delicate pink colour, and makes the entire blossom 

 appear uniformly dark. 



The flower which, combining strangeness with 

 beauty, comes nearest to the chequered daffodil is 

 the henbane, with an exceedingly dark purple 

 centre and petals a pale clouded amber yellow 

 delicately veined with purple brown. But in the 

 henbane the dark and pale hues are seen contrasted. 

 In flowers like these, but chiefly in the chequered 

 daffodil, we see that the quality of strangeness, 

 which is not in itself an element of beauty, has 

 yet the effect of intensifying the beauty it is 

 associated with. Thus, if we consider other admired 

 species — briar -rose, pink convolvulus, rock -rose, 

 sea-poppy, yellow flag, bugloss, blue geranium, 

 water forget-me-not, flowering rush, and grass of 

 Parnassus, for example — and many more might be 

 named — ^we see that in beauty, pure and simple, 

 these equal and exceed the fritillary ; yet this 

 impresses us more than the others, and surprises 

 us into thinking it more beautiful because its 

 beauty strikes us more sharply. It is not sufficient 

 to say that the sharper impression is due merely to 

 the unusual appearance. I rather incline to believe 

 that the source of the vivid interest excited is that 

 faculty of the mind supposed to be obsolete, but 

 which still faintly lives in all of us, though we may 

 be unconscious of it— a faculty which sees a hidden 



