Flowers and Plants. 57 



can be found where so wonderful a change has been wrought in 

 so short a time a? in Li Crosse. Thirty years since, the eite of 

 La Crosse was but little better than a desert, covered with patches 

 of stunted grass, interspersed with sand burrs ; there was not to 

 exceed thirty buildings all told, and several of these rude shanties ; 

 I believe that I am safe in saying that there was not at that time 

 to exceed one dozen house plants in the place, and they were the 

 property of Mrs. J. M. Levey and Mrs. Simeon Kellogg, and did 

 not exceed a half dozen species. Today the house plants will 

 count up into the thousands, and the bedding plants by hundreds 

 of thousands, and in the wide world there is sciircely a floral gem 

 that has not a representative here. 



Flowers add very much to the attractions of a home ; they hide 

 deformities and cover imperfections ; they fill up the depressions 

 and round the sharp angles that would otherwise be offensive to 

 the cultivated taste. It is not the grandest architecture of our 

 American cities that attracts the notice of travelers, so much as 

 the sweet fragrance of brilliant flowers and the rich hues of 

 trailing vines that adorn, drape and embower them. Eich and 

 gaudy clothing may divert the attention from the plain face, and 

 the humble flowers will be seen and admired before the most 

 magnificent works of man. The house without a tree or a flower 

 about it may well be called the *' bleak house," for the greatest of 

 all attractions are lacking, and the children reared there will have 

 no inspiration to patriotism or love for home. I believe that much 

 crime and misery may be traced directly to such dreary homes ; 

 for the most wonderful influence of floriculture is not felt without, 

 but it penetrates within. To use the language of Leigh Hunt, 

 " It sweetens the air, rejoices the eye, and links the inmates with 

 nature and innocence, and gives them something to love." Rand, 

 in his Flower and Parlor Garden, says "the love of flowers is univer- 

 sal. It is an old melody which first attuned in earliest time, in 

 the golden age of legendary lore, has come down to us, growing 

 more mellow and sweeter as it chimed through the centuries, and 

 now as then echoes in the human heart with a music akin to 

 heaven." I firmly believe that the cultivation of flowers tends 

 to sweeten the disposition, lighten the burden of toil, and soothe 



