On Gardeners' Flowers 



over with bright red, or tricksily wrought 

 out in cream colour. Occasional variega- 

 tion in the leaves is now and then pleasing, 

 though this can hardly ever be the case 

 where plants bear brilliant flowers. Thus 

 I like to see the Variegated Holly, or the 

 creamy stripes of Ribbon Grass. These 

 last are especially beautiful, because fol- 

 lowing the form of the leaf, instead of 

 breaking it up like the Geranium white- 

 wash I have mentioned. But the grass 

 has no coloured flowers to spoil. And 

 observe, when the berries appear upon the 

 Variegated Holly how inferior its effect 

 becomes. We wish for the green leaves 

 then. Amongst other leaf deformities, 

 who has not noticed that hedgehog-leaved 

 Holly, where the flat surface of the leaf is 

 trained to put forth prickles ? ^ What pos- 

 sible beauty can there be in this? High 

 cultivation will always have its dangers, a 

 tendency to strain after new effects of any 

 sort, as witness the abominable colours of 

 some of the most highly trained Pansies in 

 our markets ; but high cultivation, when once 

 started, as in the case of this variegated 

 foliage, upon tracks which are radically 

 wrong, can only produce evil without end. 



^ [The Hedgehog Holly is not a trained form ; it is a 

 wild variety of the Common Holly. — H. N. E.] 



177 M 



