Flowers and Gardens
hook downwards, and this little hook permits the drooping. And how exquisite is the result! We have said that the little flower-stalk is nearly straight. But it must be saved from an appearance of over-straightness, and this is effected by the investing sheath-like bract, which curves over it like a pruning-hook. Cut away the bract, and notice how you spoil the arch. Now take up the blossom, and hold it upside downwards, with the cup erect, the contrary position to that in which it was meant to be seen. How completely its loveliness has vanished! What an insipid flower it would be if that were its natural posture, the petals wanting in breadth, the whole aspect destitute of character! Everything is right if seen just as was originally intended, and wrong otherwise.
But here a difficulty presents itself I notice that the three inner petals are carefully ribbed on their internal surface with bright green parallel veins, evidently for the purpose of ornament, and that Nature has furthermore taken the trouble to colour the stamens orange, so as to complete the harmony. Now, in the ordinary position of the flower, the only position in which it can appear beautiful as a whole, these
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