60 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



To get some of these, and wild ones from the woods, and then dis- 

 tribute them among the sick and poor of the city, is the object of 

 this mission. We quote a few words from an account of the first 

 day's experiment: 



" The first to come were two bright-eyed girls, who, glowing with 

 the air of their country homes, and excitement from the thought of 

 the pleasure they had the means of giving, appeared with baskets 

 filled with houstonias, cowslips, violets and anemones nicely tied 

 up in pretty bunches; then came two more with baskets full 

 of English violets, and again another with wild flowers. So far all 

 were personal friends. The next contribution, however, was from 

 a stranger, lovely hot-house flowers; again, a silver wedding gift of 

 twelve beautiful bouquets, seeming to the donors the pleasantest 

 memorial they could have of their own happiness. Again, a Lady 

 Bountiful sends her carriage laden with cut flowers, pot-plants and 

 flowering shrubs." 



In the year 1872, 12,000 bouquets were distributed, 700 donations 

 of fruit and 2,000 pond lilies. Now, in the summer of 1878, their 

 work will be great, and thousands of hearts be made glad by the 

 reception of these sweet flowers that would otherwise know noth- 

 ing of them. There is a similar society in London, where the 

 children are employed to gather hampers of wild flowers, which are 

 afterwards sent to the hospitals. The eye of the weary and friend- 

 less patient buightens at the sight of the sweet bouquet that is 

 brought by gentle hands to his bedside. These fragrant flowers 

 come like a messenger of hope and comfort from the outer world. 

 Many times they are better than pills and powders. There 

 remains with them the sweetness of loving deeds — the flowers of 

 paradise. 



Flowers can never be made other than lovely, yet in arranging 

 them in vases, we frequently see them gathered so closely together, 

 without regard to size or color, that you feel almost as if some one 

 had tried to make them hideous. There is " quite a knack," as the 

 saying is, in arranging bouquets. I believe the fault usually is in 

 having too many flowers, and not enough of their own leaves, or of 

 some fern or delicate spray mingled in with them. We especially 

 ne ed the sweet scented flowers for bouquets. Sweet violet, hyacinth, 

 helioticpe, pinks, candytuft, sweet biiar, tea roses, sweet alyssum, 



