180 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 



MRS. S. M. LIVERMORE, CARTHAGE. 



If you would find the sacred paradise of purity and piety, where 

 virtue, wisdom and equity are assembled — look at the beautiful flowers 

 of the garden. The science of spiritual life is brought home to our con- 

 sciousness. Instead of the groveling of the outward senses we have the 

 illumined scroll of the spirit held down to our view. 



The subject of this paper, "The Love of Flowers," brings a busy 

 train of remembrances, each vieing for an expression of the passing 

 beauties realized in experiences, tableted in the memories of the past. 

 Being in lack of poetical expression always belonging to flowers, I 

 shall aim to give you something of a practical nature, resulting from ob- 

 servation. Use determines all qualities, whether good or evil. The 

 love and refining influence of flowers determines their use. The value 

 of all things is in their use. 



Now, as fond as we are to hear ourselves talk, and however grievous 

 it might be to our vanity to yield up to comi^liments of the hour, I 

 would gladly make the sacrifice if I could, by any power I possess, 

 transfer you all to floral scenes more beautiful and instructive than I 

 could possibly elab«rate to you in a volume, to roam through the glass 

 structures in which the plants of the tropics find a climate. No doubt 

 many of you have had this privilege; so much the more will you appre- 

 ciate what I will say in reference to one of the finest works of art in 

 flora culture. 



The place now referred to is known as Shaw's Garden, of St. Louis. 

 Henry Shaw, the former owner of this garden, is a man of great wealth, 

 owning a large landed estate joining the city. He bequeathed to the 

 city of St. Louis the world-wide renowned Botanical Garden, to the cul- 

 tivation of which he has given the greater part of his life, traveling 

 through foreign countries, gathering from all lands and from every 

 clime, to add to his green-houses and hot-houses, and to the architec- 

 tural and horticultural designs, of which St. Louis was the happy 

 recipient. 



