Evening star., 1932-08-02

As to what constitutes beauty in a
woman 40 two men seem able to agree,
Beauty in a flower, however, is a
different sort of thing.
Nine out of ten men, perhaps, would
agree that rose is one of the lovellest
art works of Nature.
Men as dissimilar as Anglo-Saxons
and the Japanese unite in their ad-
miration of morning glory blossoms.
There is agreement, the world around,
as to the good points of the iris, the
peony, and the gladiolus
In all nations a selected group OF
beauty lovers has worked to improve
these flowers, often with astonishing
results.
Working with Nature, and solely
through her kindness, mankind has
been able to create, literally, more beau
tiful flowers than she ever knew.
One means, of course, more beautiful
forms of the flowers which Nature
created in the first place.
A flower lover who has been so fortu-
nate as to see some of the species, as
they are called, of gladiolus, and who
will then compare them with the fine
ruffled varieties caused by cross breed
ing, will admit without question that
Nature actually has been shown thing
or two.
The so-called flags of grandmother
garden are mot in it" with some of the
better of the modern iris. The same
may be said of the original "piney" of
the old-fashioned dooryards.
Yet with all this improvement. and
1t is that, the essential lines of beauty
remain much the same. HorticulturistS,
as well as Nature herself, work with a
surprisingly few forms.
Whatever the scientific, technical
names are for the various flower forms,
or types, the home flower lover may
evolve his own scheme of classification.
In the main, he will find that most
flowers may be divided into single or
double forms.
This singleneSs and doubleness ap-
plies to the petals, wherein reside both
the form and the color of the flower
in fact, the beauty which the world
loves.
Coloration and form are the glories
of the flower world; foliage, habits of
growth and the like necessarily come
second. There are situations in which
plants may be valued more for their
leaves than for their flowers, since
sometimes the foliage display will be
good and the colors bad, as under
trees.
Occasionally the situation may be of
a sort, induced by heavy shade, where
in greenery is more to be desired than
bright flowers. 1t Is here a case of
good green versus Indifferent or even
poor coloration.
Single and double flowers, as they
are called, are well illustrated by the
daisy type and the rose type.
There are, of course, single wild
roses" so called, but practically all Of
our rose varieties in popular cultivation
are heavily double. This wcrd implies
petals upon petals.
In the work with the peony, our So
called rose types were evolved by the
evolution of other organs into petals.
The disposition of certain plants to
go off at such tangent, horticulturally
speaking, was cultivated, until today we
have gorgeous varieties as large as
ones head, with petals growing upon
petals, a veritable mass of them, which
are, in fact, the cause of the beauty OF
these flowers.
Yet it must be admitted that the
simple daisylike flower is a favorite
with thousands Of persons.
Just why this preference, they would
not know themselves, but they harbor
it. and carry it into visual fulhlhnent
when they garden on a small scale.
Not every single flower is fiat, on the
wheel, or saucer, pattern of the rudi-
mentary daises.
This leads us to simple scheme of