Flowers and Gardens 



Note 6 



I will give one instance of Nature's care 

 for the look of the stamens and pistils of a 

 flower. In the blossom of the Scented 

 Violet the stamens form by their conver- 

 gence a little orange beak. At the end 

 of this beak is the summit of the pistil, a 

 tiny speck of green, but barely visible to 

 the naked eye. Yet, small as it is, it 

 completes the colour of the flower, by 

 softening the orange, and we can dis- 

 tinctly see that if this mere point were 

 removed, there would be imperfection for 

 the want of it. 



Note 7 



To any one who looks at the extra- 

 ordinary beauty of the best garden Roses, 

 at the sweetness and delicacy of the tint- 

 ing, the delicious fragrance, and the large 

 nobility of form, my remarks, so far as 

 applying to them, may at first sight seem 

 very rash. And if any exception could 

 exist to what I have said, it would certainly 

 be found in the Rose. The flower has a 

 something almost human about it, — warm, 

 breathing, soft as the fairest cheek ; if 



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