190 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



gives her choicest gifts, and we are led through nature up to 

 nature's God. Behold the flowers nodding at our feet, which a 

 kind God has poured abroad with such profusion. All these 

 countless ministers of God teach their endless lessons of peace, 

 purity and love. Fresh, sweet flowers chase away the gloom and 

 sadness from many an invalid's cheek, and bring the smile of 

 happy contentment and sweet resignation. They are showered in 

 profusion when the wedding bells peal their merry chime. They 

 are placed on the caskets of our loved ones as they lie in quiet 

 rest, or sleep in "the silent halls of death." 



Our nation has set apart a day to decorate and strew flowers on 

 the graves of our countless dead, those noble souls who went 

 down in death, that the nation might live. 



We should not be ashamed to confess that the leaves of that 

 great book of revelation which God opens every morning, and 

 spreads in the valleys, on the hills, and in the forests, are rich in 

 marvellous lessons we could read nowhere else. 



"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; 



Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; 

 Who sows a seed, or trains a flower, 



Or plants a tree, is more than all. 



"And, soon or late, to all who sow, 



The time of harvest shall be given ; 

 The flowers shall bloom, the fruit shall grow, 



If not on earth, at last in heaven." 



MEETINGS OF TKE EXECUTIVE BOARD. 



Springfield, Feb. 28, 1889. 

 The Executive Board of the State Horticultural Society con- 

 vened at the Revere House in the City of Springfield, Feb. 28th, 

 1889. Present: H. M. Dunlap, President; A. C Hammond, 

 Secretary; C. N. Dennis, F. I. Mann, Wm. Jackson and J. S. 

 Browne. 



