A Descent into Particulars 69 
The various talents and gifts observable in the human 
family have their equivalent in the way that certain plants 
emphasize portions of their organism. In the Venetian su- 
mach, or smoke tree (Rhus cotinus) we see the culmination of 
the plant in the curious extension and division of the petioles 
of the flowers, which is often mistaken for its bloom. Volum- 
nia, the goddess of petioles, must preside over its life. In Eu- 
phorbia heterophylla and E. pulcherrima, known as Mexican 
Fire and poinsettia, the beauty lies in the scarlet bracts that 
surround the inconspicuous flowers; in the bittersweet, it is 
the scarlet aril surrounding the berry; in the Physalis Fran- 
cheti, or Japanese lantern plant, it is the brilliant red fruiting 
calyx. In some plants the chief value is in the foliage, which 
may be richly colored, or soft gray, white, or woolly; some 
have beautiful seed pods like honesty (Lunaria biennis); 
some are prized solely for their fragrance, as mignonette, boy 
love, Ambrosia artemesiefolia, sweet fern, lemon verbena. 
Some are strange and grotesque in shape, as the Calceolaria 
and lady’s-slipper. 
There are many plants that offend my sensibilities, not only 
because of their manner of growth, odor, habits, but they seem 
to stand for something distinctly unpleasant or irritating. I 
look upon blotched, spotted and streaked flowers as offensive 
vulgarians; colored lilies represent bad taste and loud talking 
in the floral world. Some do not fulfill the promise of youth, 
as, for example, the common mullein. I know of nothing 
more alluring than a young mullein unbitten by ambition. Its 
low rosette of woolly gray leaves are all that one can desire, 
and if it were content to remain a modest tuft, and send up a 
straight leafless stalk not over two feet high, and open its 
spike of flowers at one time, the mullein would be incompar- 
able. As it is, it reminds one of a person of simple worth who 
suddenly loses a sense of proportion and drags his unripe vir- 
