Flowers and Gardens 



inferior form is best suited to its native 

 home, and is the more beautiful of the 

 two in the place where it was intended 

 to grow. Nevertheless we may justly 

 say that cultivation has raised it when 

 the question of this local relationship is 

 set aside. In itself we do not prefer the 

 little stunted yew-tree, and yet it looks 

 better high up upon the mountain crags 

 than would the finest growth of the valley. 

 I think that the Meadow Cowslips, with 

 all their irregularities (I do not mean the 

 irregularities seen in actually bad speci- 

 mens, with perhaps three flowers to a 

 head), would be ill replaced by better- 

 grown ones ; and this could hardly be 

 understood from seeing the plants in a 

 garden where the original significance of 

 their peculiarities is no longer to be seen. 

 The loose, straggling appearance of many 

 a weed is very valuable in the hedge or 

 on pieces of waste ground. Every mass 

 of weeds has its compacter plants as well 

 as its looser, and it is the blending of 

 the two which makes the beauty. I have 

 already pointed out how the Anth^iscus 

 sylvestris redeems from flatness the long 

 levels of the mowing grass. Alter it in 

 any respect, even by enlarging its flowers, 

 and you would injure it, — the loose misty 



i68 



