SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 335 



all good, and their general use would contribute largely to the pre- 

 servation of health. Not many years ago sailors, especially those in 

 Arctic regions, on account of their close quarters on shipboard, were 

 attacked with scurvy, and many deaths resulted from it. At length 

 a remedy was found in the juice of the lemon, and now the disease 

 is not much dreaded. Some persons still cling to the oi)inion that 

 watermelons are unwholesome. What a great mistake ! To the 

 weary invalid recovering from fever the juice of a properly-ripened 

 watermelon is a delicious and health-giving treat. Dr. Tanner was 

 not afraid of watermelons when he feasted on one after his forty 

 days of fasting. 



The flowers, the beautiful flowers — " the poetry of horticulture" 

 — silentl}- exert their refining influence on humanity. Emblems of 

 beauty and innocence, they adorn the bride at the altar, and of im- 

 mortality, they cover the bier of the beloved departed. The parks 

 of our cities, where masses of flowers, closely-cut lawns, trees, arti- 

 ficial ponds and scenery imitating nature, are harmoniously blended 

 and brought into view, delight the young and please the old. Take 

 from these parks all that belong to horticulture, and then- charms 

 vanish into "air — thin air." 



I will not undertake to discuss the doctrine of evolution or the 

 Darwinian theory of the origin of the human race, but it is certain 

 that man, monkey-like, is an imitative being. Children in their 

 plays copy what they see older persons do. It has been aptly 

 observed that " men and women are only children of larger growth." 

 For illustration, let a lover and grower of fruits and flowers come to 

 reside in a village where horticulture is one of the lost arts. He 

 goes to work and plants fruits, vines, flowers and shrubbery, and 

 soon the results are apparent. Like yellow fever in mid-summer, his 

 example is contagious, and soon the greater part of the village will 

 be improved. 



From an educational standiioint, horticulture is a benefit to the 

 human race; it has given us the l)o\vnings and Wilders, the Budds 

 and Barrys — the illustrious dead and noble living — and they, in turn, 

 have given us an improved horticulture. " To him who in the 

 love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she sj^eaks a 

 various language." The si)ringing grass, the expanding buds and 

 leaves, the unfolding flowers and the ripening fruits, speak in plain 

 language to the student of nature. He who is interested in the 

 various productions, learns the effects of dew, rain, frost, snow, sun- 

 shine and temperature. He studies insect life, in order to save his 

 friends and destroy his foes. The birds and animals that are 

 injurious and those that are beneficial, attract his attention. If 

 " Nature in her works is one stupendous whole," it follows that no 

 one line of investigation can be completed without ac(|uiring some 

 knowledge of other lines more or le.ss connected with it. 



