On Gardeners' Flowers 



than which no other single quality can be 

 more immediately impressive. And, in 

 addition to this, we have the gorgeous 

 colour, spread over a wider surface than 

 in the single, and often with infinitely 

 greater command over some particular 

 hue. But, spite of all this, though the 

 double flower both may and ought to 

 yield us much enjoyment, I think just 

 feeling will prefer, for the reasons already 

 given, to anchor permanently on the 

 single. The double may be handsomer, 

 and in some respects more dignified, but 

 we feel it to be less of a companion. 



And excessive attention to highly culti- 

 vated single flowers is not without its 

 hazards. Do we not often, whilst ad- 

 miring those large, broadly developed 

 forms with their splendid colours, feel a 

 want of something more quiet and re- 

 served ? To take, for instance, that 

 magnificent blue Larkspur, which the 

 gardeners call Formosum,^ and which has 

 become one of the commonest kinds from 

 its extraordinary beauty, we cannot help 

 feeling a sort of excess, a want of suffi- 

 cient sobriety in the flower, which some- 

 what mars our pleasure. To give a 

 parallel from poetry. Few critics would 



[' Delphinium formosum. — H. N. E.] 

 155 



