On Gardeners' Flowers 



gives a rich sensuous pleasure which 

 steeps the soul as in a bath ; the other 

 a pleasure of a much higher kind, and 

 embracing far wider compass. Colour, it 

 has been said, is life — that which gives 

 vitality to form. It exists not only for 

 itself, but to carry out an object. And 

 the colour of the single Peony most beau- 

 tifully does this. The actual range, too, 

 of colour, as generally happens, is much 

 wider than in the double flower, for the 

 orange and green of the stamens and 

 pistils are superadded to the crimson — 

 not perhaps those oranges and greens 

 best calculated to show off separately, 

 but those best adapted to the particular 

 effect here required, to light up the parts 

 by striking contrast, and to give the look 

 of a living thing. In the double Peony, 

 on the contrary, the less brilliant colours 

 are refused. There must be nothing in- 

 ferior to crimson. And we can have any 

 quantity — the more the better ; for there 

 is here no nice balance to be preserved, 

 no form to be set off, but that of a large 

 round ball, massive and handsome enough, 

 but by no means highly individualised. 

 And what is the consequence ? The 

 fully-opened flower of the single Peony 

 is like the countenance of a living crea- 

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