TRANSACTIONS OF NORTHERN ILL. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 297 



Here grow the creamy-blossomed wild Honeysuckle, the wild Grape, 

 and the Round -leaved Cornel, the finest of the Dogwoods, except the 

 Flowering. I have not found this Dogwood in any other locality. In May, 

 high up at the edge of the cliff, like bells on a tower, swing the blossoms of 

 the Wild Columbine. Close at hand, on a more gentle descent to the 

 water, are several fine young Shad-trees. A tree thirty or forty feet high, of 

 this kind has grown up in a crevice in the face of the steep bluff. This is 

 the earliest bloomer of our large Rose family, and expands its snowy blos- 

 soms in April. In the time of leafing and blossoming this is one of our 

 most elegant plants ; the silky texture of the young leaves, the downy pink 

 stipules and snowy flowers, are fine enough to satisfy the most exacting 

 taste. Among the Shad-trees, Oaks, and Large-toothed Aspens, which 

 grow on this gentler descent, rise out of the fallen leaves in April, the 

 many-tinted blossoms of the Liverleaf. 



At the very edge of the most precipitous part of the bluff, and over- 

 looking the Yews, once stood a number of venerable Red Cedars, but 

 irreverent hands have cut them down. As I walked there last April, I 

 ])lucked a spray from a lonely little tree which still remains. As I shook 

 it lightly, the tawny pollen rose in a fragrant cloud of incense. 



In the thin, warm soil of the crest of the bluff, grows the first blos- 

 som of the year, the modest Pasque-flower. I have found it there and 

 in similar localities on the latter days of March. Often the frost hangs 

 on the purj)le-tinted buds, which are not graced with even a single leaf, 

 only with a hairy green involucre. The tardy leaves wait for warmer 

 days. In the ravine that borders the bluff on its landward side, flourish 

 many lovely plants. Here, in June, you will find the little Bush-Honey- 

 suckle in bloom. In May the Flowering Fern, Osmunda Claytoniana, 

 shows its snowy-white, wooly balls, through the soil in large clusters. The 

 wool, on exposure, soon changes to a fine cinnamon tint, and the balls 

 unroll into long, handsome fronds, with the fertile leaflets near the centre 

 of the fronds. 



There is no sweeter place to sit, in May, than on the crest of this 

 flower-gemmed and evergreen-scented bluff, and listen to the tremulous 

 song of the rose-breasted grosbeak in the oaks, and the soft laj) of the 

 waters on the stones at the base of the cliff. 



THE CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS. 

 The Secretary read the following essay, by Mrs. Hillis, of Dixon : 



A member of this Society, whose interest in human welfare is crown- 

 ing his silvery locks with perpetual youth, has invited me to write an 

 essay for this occasion. Can any thing new be said to induce our busy, 

 practical people to give more attention to ornamenting their homes by 

 scattering, with a liberal hand, nature's choicest treasures about their 

 grounds? The necessary knowledge to cultivate the most delicate annuals 

 is contained in the Floral Guides, that descend upon us like forest leaves 

 in autumn. So neglect is not for the lack of information of the modus 



