SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 385 



that can be turned into food or dollars and cents, and the time spent in culti- 

 vation of flowers is thrown away. Such men lose half the enjoyment and hap- 

 piness that those of finer instincts know, and live constantly with mind and 

 soul clasped in the narrow compass of a pocketbook, or lost in the demands of 

 daily dollar-grabbing and the gross appetite. Yet those who love and culti- 

 vate flowers are generally as well-to-do as their scornful neighbors, and the 

 number of wealthy ones among them is quite as large. Then the pleasure they 

 receive from the constant coming of beautiful marvels around them ; from the 

 ever recurring mystery of blade, and bud, and blossom ; from the myriad 

 bright-eyed favorites that repay them for their care by smiling daily into their 

 faces, filling the air with fragrance and the soul with satisfaction — is simply 

 incalculable. He who created the golden grain made also its many-hued cous- 

 ins, the flowers, and no doubt intended that they should be loved and cherished. 

 Better to starve the animal nature a little to satisfy the spiritual than to starve 

 the soul — suppressing all its longings for the beautiful, but to minister to 

 the animal nature of man. Love of flowers never yet led to misery or ended 

 in the prison cell or at the gallows, while love of gold has, a thousand times 

 and more. Music and flowers may be evanescent and transient delights, but 

 we should miss them sadly from our lives and few things could compensate for 

 their loss. Some pleasures people must have, and none are better or more 

 harmless than the pursuit of such happiness as bright-eyed blossoms and 

 silver-souled song afford. — Grange Visitor. 



THE HEPATICA. 



John Burroughs says of this delicate spring flower : 



What an individuality it has ! No two clusters alike; all shades and sizes; 

 some are snow-white, some pale pink, with just a tinge of violet, some deep 

 purple, others the purest blue, others blue touched with lilac. A solitary blue- 

 purple one, fully expanded and rising over the brown leaves or the green moss, 

 its cluster of minute anthers showing like a group of pale stars on its little 

 firmament, is enough to arrest and hold the dullest eye. Then I have discov- 

 ered that there are individual hepaticas, or individual families among them, 

 that are sweet-scented. This was a great surprise. The gift seems as capri- 

 cious as the gift of genius in families. You cannot tell which the fragrant 

 ones are till you try them. Sometimes it is the large white ones, sometimes 

 the large purple ones, sometimes the small pink ones. The odor is faint, and 

 recalls that of the sweet violets. 



FLOWERS AROUND ENGLISH HOMES. 



To an American, the cozy and flower-encircled homes of the lower classes in 

 England are objects of great interest. No home outside of the pent-up alleys 

 of cities is so humble or so poor as not to have sweet flowers about it in pro- 

 fusion. Yesterday I was at the conservatory and watched with wonder the 

 orders given by poor people for plants of almost every known variety. Keally, 

 it was surprising to see a man, evidently a day laborer, order five shillings' 

 worth of plants " to set about the 'ouse." I happened to know that during 

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