CHAPTER X 
THE CHARM OF COLOR 
“ How strange are the freaks of memory. 
The lessons of life we forget. 
While a trifle, a trick of color. 
In the wonderful web is set.” 
-—James Russell Lowell. 
HE quality of charm in color is 
most subtle ; it is like the human 
attribute known as fascination, 
“ whereof/’ says old Cotton 
Mather, “ men have more Ex- 
perience than Comprehension.” 
Certainly some alliance of color with a form suited 
or wonted to it is necessary to produce a gratifica- 
tion of the senses. Thus in the leaves of plants 
every shade of green is pleasing ; then why is there 
no charm in a green flower ? The green of Migno- 
nette bloom would scarcely be deemed beautiful 
were it not for our association of it with the deli- 
cious fragrance. White is the absence of color. In 
flowers a pure chalk-white, and a snow-white (which 
is bluish) is often found ; but more frequently the 
white flower blushes a little, or is warmed with 
yellow, or has green veins* 
Where green runs into the petals of a white 
flower, its beauty hangs by a slender thread. If 
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