192 Mississipjyi Valley Horticultural Society. 



clusters the best in all the world; now we have grapes so large and so deli- 

 cious, they remind us of those that were brought from the " promised land."' 

 All should have this most delicious fruit in their garden. 



We have mentioned trees and shrubs first, for the adornment of the home, 

 because they are of slower growth than the flowers, and in a work so impor- 

 tant and so fraught with pleasure to the home as the jjlanting of fruit, shrub- 

 bery and trees, the growth of one season should not be lost by delay. 



And now, lastly, we mention the flowers, not because they are least, but 

 because we love them best. 



" Flowers, bright, beautiful flowers, 

 They are linked with life's sweetest and happiest hours." 



They comfort us when lonely; they cheer us when sad; wo can gather 

 them in field and garden; we can brighten the dreariest room with their 

 presence; we crown the fair maiden for her bridal, and with sweet, sad mem- 

 ories we place them in the folded hands of our loved dead. O, beautiful 

 flowers, we will love you always ; we can take you with us, but the lovely 

 trees and the green grass beneath them we must leave in our fields and 

 gardens, till we can come again to admire their grandeur and their beauty. 



" There is a lesson in each flower, 

 A story in each grove and bower. 

 On every herb on which you tread 

 Are written words which rightly read. 

 Will lead you from earth's fragrant sod 

 To hope and holiness and God." 



The true flower lover can not long remain contented in aflowerlesshome. 

 If there are many difficulties to contend with, begin with kinds of easiest 

 culture. Shrubs and perennials are easily grown. Many of them require 

 but little care, and some will live and blossom many, years when wholly neg- 

 lected. Shrubbery should be selected with due regard to the climate in 

 which it is grown. In the North and West the lilac, syringa, snowball, spirea, 

 honeysuckle, and many others are entirely hardy, and with age increase in 

 beauty, both of foliage and flowers. In the South the treasures of the floral 

 world are at your command. 



But more desirable than all these, are the hardy roses. No flower is so 

 universally loved and admired as the rose. Thousands of new roses are of- 

 fered in catalogues, but we dare not try these in the new home; a few of the 

 old ones we loved in childhood, like the " hundred leaf,'" the blush rose, or 

 the little white Scotch rose, with some of the lotus kinds, like Giant of Battles 

 and Madam Planters, that we know will not die, will give us roses all the 

 summer. 



After roses and other shrubbery, we would grow dahlias, because they will 

 do more in the way of ornament for a new home than any flower we know. 

 They grow very rapidly, often attaining ten feet in height, and bloom pro- 

 fusely with large conspicuous flowers of brilliant colors of every shade, from 



