On Gardeners' Flowers 



acquaintance, but the double blossoms 

 hold me quite aloof, and it seems little 

 better than a stranger. Notwithstanding, 

 in the double Rose and Peony, whatever 

 may be the loss, the gain is in some re- 

 spects great. There are other flowers, 

 however, in which the case is widely 

 different. Look, for instance, at the blos- 

 som of a well-grown single Hollyhock, 

 with its central column of white mealy 

 stamens, around which the bees are for 

 ever digging and burrowing, and observe 

 how beautifully this column completes the 

 deep bowl-like corolla, and then stand 

 apart and see how by these columns the 

 whole spire is illuminated, every part of 

 it brought out into clear relief, as by a 

 lamp placed in the centre of each flower. 

 No mere alteration of colour could ever 

 produce this effect. It is only to be got 

 by an essential change of structure in 

 the parts of the flower. Now would you 

 think it possible that any one would be 

 willing to throw away these beautiful 

 stamens,^ and have the corolla choked up 

 by a blind unmeaning mass of spongy 



1 [In most double Hollyhocks the stamens remain ; for 

 the double flower is a collection of single flowers within 

 one involucrum, and so differs from the double Peony, in 

 which the stamens are converted into petals. — H. N. E.] 



149 



