246 WOOD AND GARDEN 



shapeless ball, and to arrange the flowers so that they 

 are equally spotted all over it, by tying back some alraost 

 to snapping-point, and by dragging forward others to the 

 verge of dislocation. I have never seen anything so 

 ugly in the way of potted plants as a certain kind of 

 Chrysanthemum that has incurved flowers of a heavy 

 sort of dull leaden-looking red-purple colour trained 

 in this manner. Such a sight gives me a feeling of 

 shame, not unmixed with wrathful indignation. I ask 

 myself, What is it for ? and I get no answer. I ask 

 a practical gardener what it is for, and he says, " Oh, 

 it is one of the ways they are trained for shows." I 

 ask him, Does he think it pretty, or is it any use ? and 

 he says, " Well, they think it makes a nice variety ; " 

 and when I press him further, and say I consider it a 

 very nasty variety, and does he think nasty varieties are 

 better than none, the question is beyond him, and he 

 smiles vaguely and edges away, evidently thinking my 

 conversation perplexing, and my company undesirable. 

 I look again at the tmhappy plant, and see its poor 

 leaves fat with an unwholesome obesity, and seeming 

 to say, We were really a good bit mildewed, but have 

 been doctored up for the show by being crammed and 

 stuffed with artificial aliment I 



My second example is that of Azalea indica. What 

 is prettier in a room than one of these in its little tree 

 form, a true tree, with tiny trunk and wide-spreading 

 branches, and its absurdly large and lovely flowers? 

 Surely it is the most perfect room ornament that we 



