62 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
importance of following to some limited extent the example 
which Henry Shaw has set. 
There is nothing that has a finer influence upon the 
family than to bring them in contact with trees, shrubs and 
flowers, and with everything that is beautiful and lovely in 
nature. There is an inborn love in man for flowers, for 
beautiful landscapes, for all objects of beauty; and where 
children are brought up within their influence, this part of 
their nature is developed and they are elevated by it and 
become better citizens. 
Following Mr. Colman, the Chairman introduced Pro- 
fessor 5. A. Forbes, State Entomologist of Illinois, who 
spoke as follows: — 
I am used, before some audiences, and on some occasions, 
to speaking upon the subject of the relations of entomology 
to horticulture, but I confess that the situation here puz- 
zles me. I should suppose that on an occasion like this 
entomology would be about the last thing that a horticult- 
urist would care to hear about. I have a firm belief —a 
very well grounded suspicion, at any rate, —that if the 
science of entomology and the subject of that science could 
be swept out of existence together, you would be unani- 
mously in favor of it. 
And yet, as I look over these tables I see that after all 
there is another side to this question, which, perhaps, is 
not as common to our minds as the one that enforces itself 
by way of the cucumber beetle and other insects of that 
class ; and this, in order to give me a little standing room 
here for the minute or two that I shall speak to you, I will 
call up. Has it occurred to you, as we look over the floral 
show upon these tables, that the very science of floriculture 
is due to insects? That is one of the commonplaces of 
modern science; that if there had been no insects, there 
would have been no flowers; that in fact, in a very great 
sense, an insect is the creator of a flower; that every flush 
of color upon the petal, and every driblet of honey, and 
