STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 143 



It is a fancied idea that there is a likeness of the parts of this 

 flower to the instrument of Christ's torture — we see a representa- 

 tion of the cross, the crown of thorns, the scourge, the sponge, the 

 nails and the five wounds, all of these seemingly portray the suffer- 

 ings of our Savior. 



It is said this glorious symbol of faithfulness to be seen in its 

 unsurpassed beauty, must be viewed in the forests of Brazil and the 

 mountains of Peru. 



There, in the shades of the lofty Andes, Francis Pizarro and 

 his followers found this lovely flower in 1541 — and its graceful 

 beauty, and emblematical symbols, attracted the attention of these 

 Spanish explorers, who came in the name of their king, under the 

 banner of the cross, and were desolating the temples, homes and 

 firesides of the natives, under pretense of spreading the religion of 

 peace and good will toward men. 



" The faint passion-flower, the sad and holy, 

 Tells of diviner hopes." 



It is said that these Spanish robbers, in their eagerness for con- 

 quest of wealth and power, crushed this lovely flower, and also 

 crushed the hearth-fire and altars of the natives, and stern justice 

 wept, as she saw them sink into hopeless slavery — their numbers 

 melted away like the leaves of the forest in autumn; but, like the 

 flower, as it were, watched through the darkest hour of night, and 

 being able to abide that last cold hour, before the sun makes its wel- 

 come appearance. 



This was the favorite flower of the Dominicians, who tried to 

 assuage the sufferings caused by their own countrymen, the Span- 

 iards — these Dominicians were assiduous cultivators of the soil, and 

 plants were spread from place to place, and this flower was conveyed 

 to Spain, where it opened its starry-leaved blossoms, when, in its 

 native home, the hearths were cold and the scepter of the Inca was 

 gone forever. 



Flowers will preserve their reputation through ages, and through 

 subversions of empires, and internecine wars, and will see genera- 

 tions succeed each other and pass away, without losing the homage 

 rendered, or love borne them. 



Many flowers have we passed by unnoticed, but as well might a 

 botanist presume to claim the fee simple of all the land he travels 

 over in gathering together a large collection of plants and flowers, 

 as for us to mention all the different plants, and their own peculiar 

 endowment of color, charm and beauty, when we are told by such 

 authority as Bentham and Hooker that there are about ninety-six 

 thousand species of plants of the earth, in the flowering divisions — 

 we can say we look at this sea and we find it shoreless. 



For the tiara we weave for nature, we bring a few flowerets, rich 

 in precious gifts — Jussieu's offering from the Codillerasis the Helio- 



