A SECRET OF THE CHARM OF FLOWERS I6l 



The obvious explanation of such a preference 

 would be that the particular flower preferred is 

 intimately associated with recollections of a 

 happy childhood, or of early life. The associa- 

 tions will have made it a flower among flowers, 

 charged with a subtle magic, so that the mere 

 sight or smell of it calls up beautiful visions 

 before the mind's eye. Every person bred in a 

 country place is affected in this way by certain 

 natural objects and odours ; and I recall the case 

 of Cuvier, who was always affected to tears by 

 the sight of some common yellow flower, the 

 name of which I have forgotten. 



The way to test the theory is to take, or 

 think of, two or three or half-a-dozen flowers 

 that have no personal associations with one's own 

 early life — that are not, like the primrose and 

 daffodil in the foregoing instance, sacred flowers, 

 unhke all others ; some with and some without 

 human colouring, and consider the feehng pro- 

 duced in each case on the mind. If any one will 

 look at, say, a Gloire de Dijon rose (in some 

 persons its mental image wiU serve as weU as 

 the object itself) and then at a perfect white 

 chrysanthemum, or Mly, or other beautiful white 



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