148 BIRDS AND MAN 



a doubt ought to disappear when the reds are 

 considered, and when it is found that the ex- 

 pression peculiar to red flowers varies infinitely 

 in degree, and is always greatest in those shades 

 of the colour which come nearest to the most 

 beautiful flesh-tints. 



When I say "beautiful flesh -tints" I am 

 thinking of the aesthetic pleasure which we 

 receive from the expression, the associations, of 

 the red flower. The expression which dehghts 

 is in the soft and dehcate shades ; but the 

 expression would exist still in the case of floral 

 tints resembhng the unpleasant reds, or the reds 

 which disgust us, in the human face. And we 

 most of us know that these distressing hues are 

 to be seen in some flowers. I remember that 

 I once went into a florist's shop, and seeing a 

 great mass of hard purple-red cinerarias on a 

 shelf I made some remark about them. "Yes, 

 are they not beautiful ? " said the woman in the 

 shop. "No, I loathe the sight of them," I 

 returned. " So do I ! " she said very quickly, 

 and then added that she called them beautiful 

 because she had to sell them. She, too, had no 

 doubt seen that same purple-red colour in the 



