340 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



CULTURE OF FLOWERS. 



BY MARY S. FISTKK, Li/nnptrt, Lehiuh County, Pa. 



Flowers and very beautifully deJined as tlie "ornaments of vege- 

 table existence." 



Culture consists in fostering care, hence by applying culture to 

 flowers, we mean the care and attention given, and also required, in 

 furnishing home and surroundings with beautiful fragrant flowers. 

 Culture is also defined as the sense of beautv in nature. This is a 

 good definition for flowers as culture certainl}- beautifies them. 

 Since culture beautifies the flowers, and culture of flowers is a very 

 refined occupation, so indulging in it has a tendency to beautify the 

 mind. Why not follow the work to some extent? You find a great 

 deal of refinement slumbering in that person who has a love of 

 flowers. The poet Wordsworth says thus: 



"To me the meanest flower that blows can give 

 Thoughts that often lie too deep for tears." 



The most beautiful thoughts are sometimes suggested by the meek 

 little ''stars of earth" that grow by the road side, without culture 

 even. It is a fact that culture in humanity has the power to uplift 

 the tiny flower, unnoticed by the stern eye of that person who has 

 no love for the beautiful. Should we find a person so disposed and 

 trace the annals of his life we might perhaps find a flaw or lac k of 

 self esteem. God created the flowers as a reminder of the eternal 

 bliss into which this mortal frame of ours is to pass after our earthly 

 pilgrimage is done. 



Few objects are better adapted to refine the taste than flowers. 

 They have become almost endless themes for poets and have fur- 

 nished the minds of sculptors and painters with lovely forms and 

 pictures. 



Persons who have a great deal of mental labor, the hardest work 

 existing, find no better source of recreation than a few hours daily 

 in the flower garden "among the lilies." This has a tendency to 

 draw the attention away from books, and makes clear and bright the 

 wearv brain, and fills it with an abundance of new and better 

 thoughts. 



There is no color-line in the flower garden. From the majestic 

 sunflower, towering above her sisters of the garden and faithfully 

 turning to welcome the god of day, to the humble violet which closes 

 its cup before impending showers, there is scarcely a single flower 



