OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 47 



sand voices, or seeing from * clear placid Leman ' 

 the sunlight on Mont Blanc. 'It is too wonderful 

 and excellent for me/ we say ; ' it is more like 

 heaven than earth.' Or, with Milton, we ask in 

 reverent wonder, — 



* What if earth 

 Be but the shadow of heaven, and things herein 

 Each to each other like, more than on earth is thought ? ' 



and our prayers go up, as the incense from the 

 Rose, for purer eyes and hearts. 



We have nothing in the whole range of floriculture 

 so completely charming as a Rosary in 'the time 

 of Roses.' A grower of most flowers, and a lover 

 of all, I know of none which can compete with 

 the Rose for colour, form, and fragrance, jointly, 

 whether en masse or in single blooms. ' Orchids,' 

 do I hear } Well, I have stood before Lcelia 

 purpMrata and Cattleya Mendeli in an ecstasy of 

 admiration, until, the flower-show being crowded, 

 the police have requested me to move on. Not 

 long ago I lost half my dinner because my eyes 

 would wander from my plate to a Dendrobe (I 

 forget its title) some distance up the table ; and 

 I appreciate generally with a fond delight the 

 delicacy, the refinement, the brilliancy of this 

 lovely class. It is the aristocracy, but not the 

 queen of the flowers. Regarding the two collectively, 



