48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ing vine, the delicate sensitive-plant, the refined and fra- 

 grant mignonette, and the vulgar bouncing-bess. 



Thomas Moore caught the spirit of these lessons when he 

 indited the following lines on the farewells of friendship : — 



"Long, long be my heart with such memories filled, 

 Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled: 

 You may break, you may shatter, the vase, if you will; 

 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 



And then in this estimate we should not overlook the 

 silent, unconscious, moulding influence of flowers in the for- 

 mation of character, — the chastening of all that is crude in 

 our natures, and the refining and beautifying of all that is 

 lovely. Especially is this observable in children. No one 

 can look upon a collection of flowers and not receive in some 

 degree a refining and elevating influence. They rebuke all 

 coarseness ; they shame impurity ; they reprove filthy habits ; 

 they invite all beholders to a life of purity, chasity, refine- 

 ment, usefulness, and piety. They hold an important com- 

 mission in developing all that is pure and good and great in 

 a true and noble manhood and womanhood, and in transform- 

 ing the homes of the people into happy types of the lost 

 Eden. 



A wealthy gentleman residing in the midst of a sterile 

 region and thriftless population in New Hampshire invested 

 money at a great annual sacrifice in a magnificent flower- 

 garden expressly for the general improvement of his fellow- 

 townsmen. He made them welcome to plants and slips and 

 seeds ; and in a few years his most sanguine liopes were 

 realized in seeing most of the homes in town adorned with 

 well-kept flower-gardens, and a marked improvement in 

 personal appearance and manners, and in the tidiness and 

 thrift everywhere apparent. AVell for the world if it were 

 blessed with more such missionaries ! 



These thoughts are submitted with the design, if possible, 

 of awakening a deeper interest in the floral department oi' 

 your annual exhibitions. 



Stephen G. Abbott, 

 Mrs. Geo. Dean, 

 Miss Lois Dean, 



Committee. 



