It is constantly felt by thoughtful minds that nothing is complete in
this universe. We wait for perfection and can not know it in this life
or in this world.
In the world of flowers there are three primary colors, of which
many broken shades form a countless number of secondary tints.
But the scientific botanist points out a remarkable fact: many
flowers are of compound colors. Some are red and blue; some
are red and yellow; some are blue and yellow; but there never
has been such a thing as a plant whose flowers burst into all
three of the primary tints. Roses are red in various shades, and
yellow also in many shades. But that is all; no florist has ever
been able to produce a really blue rose. The same fact applies
to the chrysanthemum; it may be red in some shade or other, or
it may be yellow in a whole range of alternative tints; but
the vain dream of the Japanese is to find the fabled “blue
chrysanthemum.” A great fortune would await any one who could
produce by his art a blue rose or a blue chrysanthemum. Nature
denies to flowers the ability to range through the whole gamut
of the colors of the rainbow.
(1549)