“_As if the rainbows of the fresh mild spring Had blossomed where they fell._” The plants are perfect artists. From the budding of the Rose to the sudden shooting forth of the seeds of the Wistaria, everything they do is in perfect taste. Ugly flowers are decidedly uncommon. Those which human judgment declares to be less lovely than their fellows have their attractive points, if we take the trouble to look for them. If art is a desire for beauty, a searching after perfect harmony, then the plants and flowers are the most artistic creatures in the universe. Plant colours are particularly interesting. The flowers are master-craftsmen when it comes to the adornment of dainty, delicate petals with pigments which are the distilled essence of a thousand rainbows. No other quality in the natural world gives man a deeper emotional enjoyment. Floral colours speak a whole language of their own of which we can get only faint interpretations. Cold biologists explain that the beautiful hues and shades of plantdom are largely designed to attract insects and so secure a necessary distribution of pollen. There is no doubt that this is true, but for one to believe that this is the sole function of a flower’s beauty is to reduce the world to a materialistic basis and banish all thoughts of the esthetic, the spiritual and the ideal. The flowers are permitted to adorn themselves in bright raiment at least partly in order to satisfy the universal craving for the delicate and the artistic. It should not be imagined that the gayest and most brilliantly coloured members of the plant world are always residents of the tropics. The hot countries undoubtedly produce many specimens of startling hue and pattern, but it is often their ostentation and exotic character, rather than their beauty or charm, which attract attention. They are apt to be a bit barbaric and not as numerous as they are reputed to be. For great masses of beautiful flowers, we do not go to Mid-Africa or Cuba, but to the mountain-bound meadows of the Alps, the plains of Australia, or the prairies of America. What is more startlingly beautiful than a field of Yellow Buttercups or Black-eyed Susans which can be seen anywhere in the eastern United States? Where can our eyes feast upon a more wonderful scene than a field of Wild Verbenas and Delphiniums as found in Texas? In the tropics the flower masses are more scattered. Even the far-famed Orchids are only abundant in occasional favoured spots.