NOVEMBER 



237 



and evergreens of the ordinary beds — Thujas, Junipers, 

 Rhododendrons, &c. — rather than to the larger trees and 

 shrubs. To run down the glorious Ehododendrons in 

 themselves would be preposterous ; but they always have, 

 however large they may grow, an air of gentlemanly 

 restraint — a drawing-room manner, as it were — which must 

 produce the effect we have described wherever they are 

 very numerous. But the old garden impresses us always 

 by that loving tenderness for the plants. "That wall- 

 flower ought not to have come up in the Box edging — but 

 never mind, we must manage to get on without hurting 

 the wallflower ; " and it is this spirit of compromise — this 

 happy, genial, kindly character, as contrasted with the 

 sterner and less loving spirit, which you feel is ready to 

 descend upon any transgressor in a moment, that makes 

 the difference of which we speak.' 



Mr. Watson is very severe in his condemnation of 

 double flowers, and in a way which, I think, indicates the 

 same nature that could not admire Eubens or the Venetian 

 painters. Surely many people with a sensuous tempera- 

 ment are no more to be blamed therefor than are people 

 who blush to be reprimanded by those who do not. In 

 their power of giving pleasure the strong-scented double 

 garden flowers are superior to the beautiful single ones, 

 and the Neapolitan Violet, the warm, exquisitely scented 

 Tuberose, the tender but fuU-odoured garden Eose, and 

 the Carnation, give great delight in a harmless way to 

 people of certain temperaments. Why should this be con- 

 demned, when that which pleases the eye in the beautiful 

 forms of the single flower is praised ? Mr. Watson says, 

 ' Above all, scorn nothing ' ; yet he himself utterly condemns 

 the cultivator who prefers the double sweet-scentedflowers. 

 It is the old story ; as Samuel Butler puts it, the damning 

 of the sins we are not inclined to. We all do it more or less. 

 To me some few flowers seem vulgar, partly from associa- 



