Flowers. 57 



now most welcome. June is, par excellence, the month of roses, 

 noblest " Queen of Flowers." She chooses the most delightful 

 month of all the } T ear, when it is perfect summer everywhere; 

 before the sun scorches the green grass and steals the freshness 

 from bough and leaf; when everything rejoices in the pure air, the 

 fleecy clouds and the gorgeously tinted sunsets. The praises of 

 the rose are sung by the poets of every clime. Our florists culti- 

 vate acres of them, raise millions of plants for sale; still, it is not 

 held in higher esteem than years ago by the ancients. At 

 their festivals roses were woven in festoons, suspended from the 

 ceiling, wreathed over the arches, and the horses that drew their 

 chariots were adorned with them. Everywhere they were used as 

 an ornament. There are upwards of ten thousand varieties now 

 grown and we can readily comprehend the perfection to which rose 

 culture has attained. It will hardly do to particularize in this short 

 paper, and my conscience would upbraid me for mentioning only 

 the few, when they are all so lovely. 



If we have not been forgetful of the seed time, we will ere 

 many weeks be delighted with daises white, azaleas bright, scarlet 

 salvias, the foxglove's purple bells, and larkspur with eyes of blue, 

 bright hued flowers of drummond phlox, balsams and asters in great 

 variety. The convolvulus will peep in at our windows, bidding us 

 a cheerful good morning. I have thought so many times that I 

 would like to visit some of the extensive flower farms of James 

 Vick, Bliss, Henderson, Allen, or some others of our noted florists. 

 Just imagine, ye lovers of flowers, who take such pride in a few 

 dozen plants, acres of pink, purple, crimson, scarlet, white and 

 variegated blossoms; lilies of all kinds and descriptions; acres of 

 carnations and roses, mino-lin<r their fragrance with sweet verbena 

 and heliotrope. The green-houses connected with these grounds , 

 how perfectly gorgeous they must be! The pictures of our imag- 

 ination that we may form of them, cannot possibly exceed their 

 loveliness. 



I was reading a few days ago a description of Mr. Shaw's gar- 

 dens at St. Louis. What a nice old bachelor he must be. This 

 whim of his is truly remarkable, and he will be praised and honored 

 for it. What a beautiful gift to the great city. He must be a man 

 of the best of taste, one of the real lovers of the beautiful in 

 nature, the beautiful God-given flowers. Woodward's gardens of 



