Flowers and Gardens 



ture, with a certain proportion of light 

 and warmth, are the ordinary conditions 

 of this, and hence comes the freshness 

 of our own spring season, and of the 

 colder temperate zone as a whole, as 

 well as that of the tropics after the 

 falling of those heavy rains which are 

 necessary to maintain the balance against 

 a sun of such tremendous power. Fresh- 

 ness is generally most marked where 

 vital activity is strongest— viz., in soft, 

 succulent, fast-growing tissues filled with 

 abundant sap, and principally, therefore, 

 in the younger parts of vegetables, after 

 these have been sufficiently sunned to 

 give them a look of bright and joyous 

 health. Wrinkled, stiff-leaved, spinous, 

 or woody plants, on the other hand, are 

 characteristic of hot dry places, and we 

 feel them to be but half alive, however 

 rapidly they grow. Indeed, as a rule, 

 they do not grow rapidly. Evergreens 

 are remarkably slow : ^ the common Box 

 is a very type of slowness, whence its 

 frequent use in our older gardens for 

 edgings. 



Now freshness is displayed by each 



^ [Not all. Many conifers grow very rapidly. The 

 Wellingtonia will often gain two feet in height for many 

 years together. — H. N. E.] 



90 



