294 
THE FERN PARADISE . 
than usual, it is seldom that the effect produced 
is striking. The conservatory — when an adjunct 
of the drawing-room, and immediately con- 
tiguous to it — supplies in some degree the re- 
quirements of a refined taste ; but dwelling 
rooms are mostly subjected to the despotic 
sway of a system of conventional ornamenta- 
tion. Even rigid conventionalism, however, pays 
homage to nature, by calling artistic effort into 
requisition in order to produce petrified imi- 
tations of leaves and flowers. The high art of 
the painter and sculptor, and the ruder arts of 
house decorating, are employed in this work 
of imitation ; but the result — often beautiful and 
striking as an artistic success — pales before the 
exquisite reality of nature itself. 
Why then do we not sweep away from our 
dwelling-houses the rigid conventionalism which 
is content to represent nature in stereotyped 
lines in places where she is only too ready to 
come herself, in all her chaste and simple yet 
inimitable loveliness ? Her image may still be 
preserved in stereotype where she cannot come 
