THE BEAUTY OF FLOWERS 287 



for us, half pathetic and half amusing; and when we 

 are sated with one kind of artifice we turn with rehef 

 to another that is less familiar. Thus we are inclined 

 just now to be sated with flowers that are loose and 

 floppy and fantastic in shape, and hectic or over- 

 refined in colour, flowers like some of the tree Pseonies 

 and Tea-roses, and tuberous Begonias; and, there- 

 fore, we have a kindlier feeling for the old prim flowers 

 which, at least, did not look exhausted by their efforts 

 to be beautiful, which bore themselves with some 

 reserve, and were not dishevelled by any violence of 

 wind and rain. In all these cases it is the human 

 element in the flower that provokes reactions and 

 changes of fashion. The gardener exaggerates its 

 natural qualities in one direction or another to suit 

 his own taste; and its beauty at once becomes subject 

 to the insecurities of taste which affect all beautiful 

 things made by men. But the beauty of flowers un- 

 changed by men is not subject to these insecurities 

 — or subject to them only when the flowers are grown 

 in unnatural conditions. Wild flowers have developed 

 in their own world and seem to be as perfectly fitted 

 to it as stars to the sky. One can no more see the 

 true beauty of Houseleeks or Stone Crops when they 

 are forced into the pattern of a carpet bed than one 

 can see the true beauty of wild animals in a cage at 

 the Zoo. There is a mystery of fitness in all beauty, 

 and the way to be sure of it is to study the beauty 

 of wild flowers, of Woodruff on a shady bank, or 

 Bluebells under wild Cherry blossom in a wood, or 



