STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 137 



They are so sensitive, too, that it almost seems us though they were endowed with 

 sensation and perception. Bow sweetly they breathe apon the careless who tread un- 

 heedingly upon them! Eow they shiver when touched by an ungentle band! How 

 they shut their eyes and (.-over their beads with their mantles when plucked from the 

 parenl Btem, and hovi soon they * l i » • ! lint Bee bow booii they recognise a friend, if he 

 only administers to them a eup of cold water! How quickly they revive — how 

 gratefully they smile their thanks, and exhale their gratitude I 



The love of (lower.-, is such an acknowledged virtue that many claim it who do not 

 possess it. It seems to me that a lady who only hires a stranger to cultivate and cut 

 her flowers, and has no other use for them than the adornment of her house or her 

 person, evinces more admiration tor herself than for her flowers; and I cannot help 

 questioning the genuineness of thai affection, which permits the last novel to make one 

 forget to water plants, or the delicacy of one's hands to prevent cultivating them. 

 And I have no patience with those scicntilie monsters who are never satisfied till they 

 have investigated the internal structure of a plant, from the terminal leaf to the most 

 distant spongiole. What would one think of a physician who heeame so ahsorhed in 

 anatomy, that he looked upon mankind only as so many splendid specimens, which it 

 would give him infinite pleasure to dissect for the advancement of science! 



The pleasure of memory is perhaps one of the most independent and gratifying 

 sources of our happiness. Did you never puzzle yourself for days, trying to think 

 what old friend was so like some new acquaintance — or whose almost forgotten voice 

 you heard again, when some stranger was speaking ? Hut were you ever at loss to tell 

 what vision rose when, after years of wandering, you once more inhaled the perfume 

 of the lilac? How clear came the remembrance of every sight and Bound of a spring 

 morning, long ago and far away ! Does the heliotrope ever fail to make you think of 

 somebody ? And of whom does the first rose of summer remind you ? 



The choicest gems in literature are indebted to dowers for their most Btriking similes 

 and glowing descriptions. What so forcible as the glory of man compared to the 

 flower of grass ? And how can we realize Bum's beautiful apostrophe to happy and 

 innocent love apart from 



" the milk-white thorn, 



That Bcenta the evening gale." 



No wonder lowers are considered the abode of fairies, and that they come to be 

 regarded as emblems of all the virtues and passions ; for, by a thorongh acquaintance 

 with them, they acquire a personality which makes them very companionable; and 

 we regard them separately as a good shepherd does each individual member of bis 

 flock. 



As the influence of flowers is always refining and enobling, so the associations they 

 bring, are always the purest and sweetest. Who can imagine a person gii ing flovi ers to 

 any but a friend? And did you ever know of a very bad person who Loved and culti- 

 vated lowers P 



[f I werea young lady I would much sooner trust my happiness to the keeping of 

 the man whose button-hole was adorned with a sprig of mignionette, than to him who 

 drove the finesl horses and indulged lo the mosl costly Ha vanasl And if 1 werea 



young man well 1 suppose I should do as the rest -do. 



The cultivation of flowers Is so conducive to health and happiness, that it seems 

 unnecessary lo say one word in its favor, and the modes of culture, and fashions of 



