LOYE OF HORTICULTURE IN ENGLAND. 175 



that the Bussey Institution will do all that is needed to induce 

 women to give their minds to this work. We want a wide- 

 spread interest in the subject. I rejoice in the welcome which 

 this Board gives to women at their sittings, and I trust that 

 those who have a practical acquaintance with the subject will 

 take active part in its discussions. It is not at all unusual for 

 women to take prizes at horticultural shows.* I hope in future, 

 at agricultural fairs, they will display squashes and turnips, 

 melons and pears, of their own raising, instead of patch-work 

 bed-quilts, worsted work of strange device, and paintings which 

 savor strongly of boarding-school teaching. 



Women need to grapple with realities and take hold of the 

 real work of the world earnestly, not merely to employ odd 

 moments in useless prettinesses. 



I am told, by those who have lately been in England, that it 

 is delightful to see the rapidly-growing love of horticulture 

 there among all classes. The magnificent floral exhibitions in 

 London are attended by all the wealth, fashion and beauty of 

 the great metropolis, and ladies of the highest rank discuss, 

 learnedly, the merits of a new seedling, or favorite variety, as 

 they do the charms of an opera singer. This results very much 

 from the love of country life so common among the English 

 aristocracy. But the taste is spreading very fast through all 

 ranks. Rows of houses built to let are provided with hanging 

 green-houses. In that milder climate, the simple protection 

 of glass is all that is needed for many choice species of plants, 

 and every house is proud of the display made in its windows. 

 With us it has been found that no money brings in a greater 

 return of health and pleasure to the family, than that spent in 

 the little green-house opening out of the sitting-room or parlor. 

 It should not be an exclusive luxury for the rich ; it may be 

 brought within very moderate means. 



I remember one family of women who, having little property 

 but the house in which they lived, have supported themselves 

 for years by the needle — one pet sister excepted, whose artistic 

 talent has been widely fostered to be the joy and pride of all. 

 As they sat sewing in their pleasant room, always full of house- 

 plants reared by their own care, and talked to you of the 

 choicest works of art and literature, even the poor labor of 

 sewing seemed to lose its primeval curse, and they seemed free 



