STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 133 



fountains ; but simple and unpretending in its character and narrowed in its ana • 

 Ktiil.it has it- sweetand not transient pleasures, and many days of gloom and noon 

 of monotonons boil will be relieved by pleasant^reveries on the flowers that were, and 

 fond anticipations of those to come. Especially fond after the long, dreary reign of 

 the frost kin::. Then will come forth 



•■ Daffodils 



Thatconie bel >re the swallow does, and lake 



The winds of Hard) with beauty : Violets dinf, 



Hut sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 



Or Cytherea's breath." 



A word or two, supposing we have flowers: In the genial spring time, after the 

 close confinement of winter, out-door work is happiness. To hoe, to rake, to dig in 

 the moist, fragrant earth, Beems to be what we shall always like to he doing ; but it is 

 not always spring. Plants are the most tyrannical of pets ; they must be tended in 

 son and out of season. Neglect is death; or worse, deterioration. Better have 

 only ■ grass plat, than a garden gone to waste. It makes one think of the garden of 

 Eden a tier the tall. 



I would not discourage floriculture, but encourage it in its best form. We read of a 

 man plantings vine and eating the fruit thereof ; but we are not to suppose he did 

 nothing in the interim. There must be work, constant, unremitting work. Let every 

 one who .an, have flowers; but let them be well eared for, that they may look healthy 

 and happy ; for 



" ' Tis my faith that every llower 

 Enjoys the air it breathes." 



A flower must have its proper food, drink, and dwelling place, or it can no more 

 exist or grow than a human being. It is the full development of vegetable life, and 

 the consideration of its mysteries, involves a careful examination of the life of a plant 

 from the seed placed in the ground to its maturity. In the seed cell, the embryo of 

 the future plant is carefully preserved in its envelope of starch and gluten. This life 

 germ, under favorable cirenmstances, has been preserved for centuries. Wheat taken 

 from t lie hand of an Egyptian mummy germinated and grew. The process of germina- 

 tion is essentially chemical. The seed i- placed in the Boil, excluded from the light, 

 supplied with a due quantity of moisture, and kept in a temperature above that at 



which water freeze.-.; air must have fin e access to the seed, which if placed too d p 



in the soil will not germinate; the starch, which is composed of oxygen and carbon, 

 most obtain another portion of oxygen from the air in order that it be converted into 

 sugar; this sugar furnishes loud to the coming plant, which in a short time will -hoot, 

 its leaves above the soil. A species of slow combustion takes place in the process ol 

 germination, and carbonic acid gas, composed of carbon and oxygen, is evolved. Thus 

 by a mystery thai BCience doe- qo| enable us to reach, tin- spark of life is kindled ; 

 life commences its work, and the plant grows. 



Why do not some of our lady florists devote a portion of their gardens to wild 

 flowers? I cannot better express myself on this subject than by quoting the words of 

 Mr. John H. Tice in an essay on "Our Native Flowers." 



"I wish to enter a plea for tin' wild fiowers of America : a plea to have their merits 

 appreciated for adorning our homes, and a plea lor rescuing them from destruction, 



