2U WOOD AND GARDEN 



the waved or slightly fluted radiations, the scarcely 

 perceptible undiilation of surface that displays to per- 

 fection the admirable delicacy of velvety texture ; all 

 the little tender tricks and ways that make the Pansy 

 one of the best-loved of garden flowers; all this is 

 overlooked, and not only passively overlooked, but 

 overtly contemned. The show-pansy judge appears 

 to have no eye, or brain, or heart, but to have in 

 their place a pair of compasses with which to describe 

 a circle ! All idea of garden delight seems to be 

 excluded, as this kind of judging appeals to no re- 

 cognition of beauty for beauty's sake, but to hard 

 systems of measurement and rigid arrangement and 

 computation that one would think more applicable to 

 astronomy or geometry than to any matter relating to 

 horticulture. 



I do most strongly urge that beauty of the highest 

 class should be the aim, and not anything of the 

 nature of fashion or "fancy," and that every effort 

 should be made towards the raising rather than the 

 lowering of the standard of taste. 



The Societies which exist throughout the coimtry 

 are well organised; many have existed for a great 

 number of years ; they are the local sources of horti- 

 cultural education, to which large circles of people 

 naturally look for guidance ; and though they produce — 

 especially at the Rose shows — quantities of beautiful 

 things, it cannot but be perceived by all who have had 

 the benefit of some refinement of education, that in 



