Flowers and Gardens 



endangered, this sense of security is im- 

 possible. Each should be safe and 

 honourable by right of citizenship, by 

 the mere fact of its presence being 

 allowed. We should feel that the test 

 of merit has been applied already, and 

 is not liable to renewal. But if we can- 

 not regard this decision as final, if the 

 meaner plants are always liable to be 

 retried, and possibly condemned, or ne- 

 glected as of doubtful worth, everything 

 alike will share their risk. The most 

 beautiful is then cast upon its own merits 

 exclusively, and the thought of final rest 

 is gone. 



*'But you must be recommending a 

 general scene of misrule, if the plants 

 are to do as they please.'' No, for I 

 am only dealing with appearances. If 

 the wallflower which has strayed into the 

 box should look unsightly, by all means 

 root it out. I only want the aspect of 

 liberty in the plants, so that the garden 

 shall, as most wild vegetation is, be ex- 

 pressive of fatherly, indulgent, peaceful 

 rule ; for the vegetable kingdom is the 

 sphere of all others from which disquiet 

 and restraint are by nature the most 

 completely banished. Life is too cold in 

 the mineral kingdom ; in the animal we 



136 



