50 "Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



decoration of the barren ground, which received the plants the 

 next day. This is worthy of imitation in every city. 



Geology reveals the interesting fact that flowers, as things of 

 beauty, did not have a place in the vegetable world prior to man's 

 existence, but that they appeared to be contemporary with man. 

 Why this unless they were to have some part in delighting and 

 blessing humanity? Home is the place where horticulture finds 

 its true field and mission. It comes as a " ministering angel " to 

 make the home attractive ; and to while away many an hour 

 which might otherwise be spent in moodiness, or in dissipation. I 

 would commend home adornment by the art of horticulture, not 

 simply for the pleasures of sense or the enhanced value of real 

 estate, but as the means of making home the paradise of the fam- 

 ily. That the children may grow up with higher and more refined 

 ideas of life. That the homestead may be so much a home, that 

 only the calls of duty or the inevitable changes of social life 

 shall draw them from its endearing associations, and then that 

 they may ever carry with them such pleasant remembrances of 

 early life, that they may be constrained to make their own homes- 

 thus attractive. Bayard Taylor says 



" Our life line i8 the love of home, 

 Oh make it fast where ere you roam, 

 Amid the rough world's rolling strife, 

 It is the anchorage of life." 



It is said of some flowers that " they grow everywhere ;" do 

 not then neglect these common flowers, as their very omnipresence 

 may remind some straying spn or wayward daughter of the care 

 and love so willingly divided between the children and the flowers 

 in the old home, by kind friends whose cares are forever at rest. 

 Our churches should be made cheerful with flowers and foliage. 

 Flowers on the bier of the departed are emblems of the glorious 

 morn beyond. Fresh flowers strewn upon the graves of our friends 

 show that we have them yet fresh in memory, their very withering 

 reminding us that our mortal remains will soon beside them lie. 

 Decoration day, with its revival of memories and flower gifts, has 

 become a national holiday, and the only one where flowers have 

 an important part in the day's programme. As lovers of horti- 



