The Coltsfoot. 251 



the ignorant, who have no souls to admire humble merit, whether 

 in men or flowers, until it has received the sanction of fashion, 

 or the patronage of the great. 



It is the exalted mind alone that can penetrate through the 

 flimsy veil of a gaudy exterior, and discover merit in a hovel. 

 Had not Evelyn dragged Gibbon from such a situation into the 

 presence of his sovereign, the world would never have been en- 

 riched bv his incomparable writings, nor would England have 

 had to boast of such a treasure. The plants of the hedge are 

 unobserved by the vulgar, who cannot conceive that beauty can 

 Hourish out of the garden's bounds. Madame de Latour could 

 not leave this fragrant plant without a place in floral language, 

 and therefore says under this head, Justice shall be done you. 

 And as an illustration that the vulgar have not the power to dis- 

 cern merit, cither in men or plants, until it is pointed out to them 

 by the finger of the world, she gives the following anecdote of a 

 young miller in Holland, who, having a taste for painting, exer- 

 cised it at his leisure hours in portraying the few objects within 

 his limited circle ; the mill, his masters cattle and the pastures, 

 were all that presented themselves to his confined view, but these 

 he varied so accurately by light and shade, as the effect of the 

 clouds changed them, as fully to compensate for the want of 

 variety ; yet his labors were not appreciated, and when he had 

 finished one picture, he bartered it away for materials to paint 

 another. It so happened that the master of a tavern, who ex- 

 pected company at his house, wished to ornament the bare walls 

 of his apartment, and purchased one of these paintings for a 

 crown, which probably would have still remained unnoticed on 

 his wall, had not chance sent an artist of judgment to his tavern, 

 who had no sooner entered the room where the picture was 

 hanging, than he discovered the merit of the young rustic painter, 

 and immediately offered the inn-keeper a hundred florins for what 

 had cost him a Dutch crown ; and paying down the money de- 

 sired the landlord to procure him all the paintings he could obtain 

 from the young miller at the same price, which circumstance soon 

 brought him into repute and enabled him to follow the bent of 

 his inclination, and delight the connoisseurs of paintings by the 

 faithful touches of his pencil. 



The thyrsi, or bunches of flowers, of this plant are of a whitish 

 or reddish lilac tint, and its odor greatly resembles the Helio- 



