This ebook was created in honour of Distributed Proofreaders’ 20th Anniversary. Transcriber’s Note When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has been surrounded by _underscores_. Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs=. Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text. A YELLOW ASTER BY IOTA “And if this fought-for climax _is_ ever reached and science, creeping along the path of experiment, so invades the realm of Nature that a blue chrysanthemum or A Yellow Aster can be produced at will, the question still remains, has Nature been made more beautiful thereby?” _IN THREE VOLUMES_ VOL I London 1894 HUTCHINSON & CO. 34 PATERNOSTER ROW PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) BY H. C. A. THIEME OF NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) AND TALBOT HOUSE, ARUNDEL STREET LONDON, W.C. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. 1 CHAPTER II. 19 CHAPTER III. 27 CHAPTER IV. 37 CHAPTER V. 44 CHAPTER VI. 59 CHAPTER VII. 65 CHAPTER VIII. 87 CHAPTER IX. 100 CHAPTER X. 109 CHAPTER XI. 130 CHAPTER XII. 151 CHAPTER XIII. 159 CHAPTER XIV. 172 CHAPTER XV. 182 CHAPTER XVI. 193 CHAPTER XVII. 203 A YELLOW ASTER. CHAPTER I. THE stable-yard of Waring Park seemed to be slightly off its head on a certain fine afternoon in June. Such an afternoon as it was, so sweet and so soft, so full of fragrant sleepy haze, that any sound louder than the sing-song of a cricket must have distracted any ordinary nerve-possessing mortal.