COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



591 



accomplished than with the Cineraria. Only three years ago we were marvel- 

 ling at — some almost worshipping — the very dwarf, stumpy Cinerarias, 

 with perfectly flat and exactly round flowers, measuring two inches or 

 more across, and now we have at one bound leapt from one extreme to the 

 other, and the tall, graceful, starry-flowered varieties (fig. 235) are all 



Fig. 235, — Cineraria stellata. {Journal of Horticulture.) 



the rage. We are afraid this swing of the pendulum may go too far in 

 the one direction, as it certainly went too far in the other. Without a 

 doubt, light, elegant, and comparatively small flowers are far more beautiful 

 than the stift" and formal, and often huge unnatural ones of a few years , 

 ago ; but do not let us degenerate, on the other side, into a worship of the 

 flimsy and the ragged. Will Dahlia lovers forgive us if we ask, Are the 



