STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 129 



adoru our homes, and all the paths of life in richer profusion. Let 

 their beauty be imprinted on our souls and reflected in our lives. 

 Let us plant in the hearts of our children the seeds of those virtues, 

 those s]iiritual beauties, imaged by these lovely creations. They will 

 bear rich fruit in after years. The flowers of virtue, and love, and 

 faith, will irradiate their lives and bloom eternal in the garden of 

 Paradise. 



Our theme has led us in different paths, through fragrant gar- 

 dens gorgeous with rare exotics, verdant meadows and shady wood- 

 lands, sweet with the l)reath of wild flowers, and fields rich in poetry 

 and song. Here and there we have plucked blossoms and sjjrays for 

 this floral offering. We need no poetic license to endow these gems 

 of nature Avith life. A breath of fragrant incense, a vision of radiant 

 beauty, a life of perfume, dew and light, of purity and sweet con- 

 tent; then, passing with autumnal glories to painless rest. 



This is the life of the flowers, a type from heaven, teaching us 

 what our lives should be. The flowers of earth will perish in the icy 

 breath of Avinter. But the flowers that blossom in the heart are 

 perennial and will never fade. Beyond the grave they will bloom in 

 immortal beauty. 



At the conclusion of Mrs. Hooker's paper, Mrs. Hilliard was in- 

 troduced, who read the following on 



HOUSE PLANTS AND HOT-AIR FURNACES. 



BY MRS. G. W. UILLIARD. 



The fascination which the culture of plants in the sitting-room 

 possesses for most women, seems almost unaccountable when we 

 consider the amount of care necessary to bring them to perfection, 

 and the enemies to be encountered in the shape of frost, earth worms, 

 insects, smoke, heat and gas. Yet, the petting of pot jdants is such 

 an innocent amusement, sometimes such a healthful relief to minds 

 overtaxed with more prosiac and monotonous cai;es, and the result, 

 when in any degree successful, is so charming to the eye of any one 

 not willfully unsusceptible, that we should be pardoned if sometime 

 and serious thought is expended in seeking to learn the best ways 

 and means of securing success. 



To those whose dwellings are warmed with hot-air furnaces, 

 slight strategy is needed to circumvent the plans of the Frost King. 

 Double sashes are all the fortifications necessary to effectually shut 

 out all drafts that can touch the tenderest buds. The delicate, grow- 

 ing shoots may then rest directly against the inner ])ane, drinking in 

 the sunshine in the clearest zero weather, while the devoted possessor 

 is saved the trouble of drawing down the shades behmd them at 



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