Flowers and Gardens 



vividness of hue, in splendour and glow 

 of colour, in that higher and more glori- 

 ous force of freshness which is too much 

 for the leaves to bear.^ Green petals 

 we seldom like to see. They betoken a 

 comparatively low type, and are often 

 associated with poisonous and suspicious 

 qualities, especially when found amongst 

 the more highly developed flowers. The 

 beauty we expect of petals is to be ex- 

 pressed in brighter tones, dull tones like 

 black or brown being extremely rare. 



We shall now be better able to under- 

 stand the freshness of the Daffodil. It 

 is a plant which affords a most beautiful 

 contrast, a cool, watery sheet of leaves, 

 with bright warm flowers, yellow and 

 orange, dancing over the leaves like 

 meteors over a marsh. The leaves look 

 full of watery sap, which is the life-blood 

 of plants, and prime source of all their 

 freshness, just as the tissues of a healthy 

 child look plump and rosy from the warm 

 blood circulating within. And this helps 

 the leaves in symbolising water in the 

 way which has been already partially ex- 



1 It is well to remind the unscientific reader that the 

 whole fruit and flower of a plant are essentially nothing 

 but an assemblage of leaves undergoing a higher de- 

 velopment. 



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