On Gardeners' Flowers 



a debilitated frame ? You may say that 

 the cases are not precisely parallel, be- 

 cause in man the general health would 

 here be deranged, while in plants it is 

 not necessarily so. But supposing that 

 the general health could be equally un- 

 affected in man, would that make any 

 difference ? Would these mental ad- 

 vantages be well bought for a nation 

 at that large expense of physical ? Yet 

 I do not condemn this mode of flower 

 training when it effects any worthy im- 

 provements, provided always that these 

 highly cultivated forms are not allowed 

 to drive out the others. 



We sometimes find an author speaking 

 of branches breaking down under their 

 load of fruit as if he considered this a 

 beauty. It is just as much beautiful or 

 desirable as to see the body destroyed 

 by an over-activity of the brain. 



183 



