I do not mean those which Mrs. Hammond, the
farmer's wife, grows in her garden, pretty as they are. We will look
rather at the wild flowers in the fields, the hedges, and by the
road-side in the lane. No one sows their seed nor takes care of them in
any way; yet they grow and blossom year after year, and nearly all of
them are beautiful.
Before we begin to look at them we must make sure that we quite
understand just what a flower is. Even those of you who live in large
towns and have perhaps never been in the country, see flowers of some
sort, I feel sure; you see them in shop windows and they are also often
sold in the streets. You have seen wallflowers and daffodils in the
spring, roses in the summer, violets in winter, as well as other kinds.
You do not need to be told that these are flowers.
What about the grass on lawns, and in such places as Battersea Park and
Hyde Park in London? "Oh," you say, "that is not a flower at all--that
is just grass." Yes, it is grass, but the grass has a flower as well as
a rose bush or a violet-plant. It is only because the grass is kept cut
short that you do not see its flower on a lawn.
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