130 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTUEAL 



Mr. McCleur — If watered to the depth of four or six inches, 

 it is a good plan to water. A good plan is to run the water in small 

 tile laid six or eight inches deep. 



Song — "Consider the Lilies," by Mrs. H. M. Dunlap, Savoy. 



BEAUTY. 



MRS. EMMA SPENCE. 



There is religion in a flower; 



Its still, small voice, is as the voice of Conscience; 



Mountains and oceans, plants, suns and systems 



Bear not the impress of Almighty power 



In characters more legible than those 



AVhich He hath written on the tiniest flower 



Whose light bell bends beneath the dewdrop's weight. 



— Horace SmWi. 



The voice of the flower is that within iti organization which 

 causes to arise in our souls a l(^ye for the beautiful. Its silent 

 appeal bids us for the moment to forget the unfortunate, the 

 depraved, the miserable of life, and to bend in admiration over the 

 unsullied, the innocent, the pure. Thus is fostered a never-dying 

 appreciation of the lovely and true in creation. Love for the beau- 

 tiful is innate. The child in its cradle grasps for the bright-colored 

 objects near it and clasps its tiny hands in glee over pretty trifles. 



The ancient Greek regarded beauty of form and feature as an 

 evidence of goodness. In his mind, the two were always associated, 

 since his gods never conferred upon a favorite the one without the 

 other. Physical perfection in ancient Greece was a gift bestowed, 

 and not a development. He who was so unlucky as to be born ill- 

 favored must pass his days under the shadow of the curse; no matter 

 how noble the heart that beat within the imperfectly formed 

 physique. 



Spartan valor did something toward the mollification of this 

 baneful idea, but never wholly eradicated it. Modern philosophy 

 reverses the doctrine, and makes homeliness, or rather plainess, the 

 handmaiden of uprightness. At this age of the superabundance of 

 ornamental embellishments, perhaps the modern device is more 

 nearly correct, since " beauty unadorned is adorned the most," and 

 anything that bears touches of the Omnipotent Hand possesses 

 some characteristics worthy of admiration. All beauty is divided 

 into two classes — natural and artificial. Devotees to each have 

 claimed the superiority of the one over the other. Art has reached 

 a height undreamed of by the masters of antiquity; but as all art is 

 but an imitation of nature, we may logically infer that the copy can 

 never equal the real in point of excellence. In the absence of the 



