Flowers and Gardens 



trace this even in the Tom Thumb Ge- 

 ranium and its larger garden varieties. 

 And so in other instances. The irregular- 

 ities, the narrowness, the unsymmetrical 

 arrangements of Nature, disappear to 

 some extent in the highly cultivated plant, 

 and a different character is introduced. 

 Although large size is a very important 

 object, it must not be too heedlessly sought 

 after. I have known writers speak as if 

 beauty could be estimated by tape measure 

 — the improvements made in the Anemone 

 being tested by the fact that the diameter 

 of the blossom had been increased from 

 one inch to six. But what are we the better 

 for Anemones six inches across ? The 

 mere fact of their being so large would be 

 sufficient proof that they had been spoilt. 



The dangers resulting from too great 

 love of double flowers are sufficiently 

 obvious from what I have said already. 

 Yet it must not be thought that I am 

 trying to depreciate the just merits of the 

 class. Though as a whole inferior to the 

 single blossoms, their superiority in indi- 

 vidual points is often undeniable. The 

 best double forms, like those of the Peony 

 and the Rose, have a fulness and majesty 

 which cannot but be deeply felt, resulting 

 from that broad and massive rotundity 



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