The Daffodil 



tions of this, look at the young spring 

 leaves when rising in the ditches among 

 last year s withered stalks, or at the green 

 shoot as it bursts through the dry coat- 

 ing of a bulb, like that of the Crocus, or 

 of some Irises and onions. 



I said that the Daffodil leaves, espe- 

 cially in their colour, are strongly sug- 

 gestive of water, the source and type of 

 coolness and freshness. But these leaves 

 are not the colour of ordinary water, nor 

 yet do they recall it in its coolest possible 

 tones. What is the reason of this? In 

 the first place, it may be answered that 

 the blue-green of the leaf is one of the 

 most beautiful of all the characteristic cool 

 tones that water is capable of assuming. 

 But there is a second and still more im- 

 portant reason. The blue-green colour 

 of water is that in which leaves are best 

 capable of imitating it to advantage. 

 The colourless tones of water are less 

 beautiful, and are not easily made com- 

 patible with any but mineral forms of 

 structure. It is true that we find clear 

 beads on the leaves of the Ice-plant, and 

 that there is brilliancy in the eye of 

 animals. But these are rare instances, 

 and even here the imitation is of water in 

 the solid form. Glaucous green, on the 



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