ANNUAL MEETING AT NEVADA. 181 



Courtesy and refinement characterized this man of flowers. 

 Always complimentary to all visitors who came and went, without money 

 and without price. 



The limits of this paper will not permit a description of the grounds, 

 even if I were romantic enough to do so. I leave to your own imagi- 

 nation to fill in, and I, in my feeble effort, fail to describe. I would be 

 glad to picture to your minds, if capable, the livlier perceptions of the 

 beautiful, and the expressions of purpose and usefulness of form and 

 sentiment, wliich belong to these scenes of floral beauty. 



This beautiful retreat lay within a convenient distance of our home, 

 and many years have intervened since the writer of this paper found it 

 one of the greatest pri\"ilege?, when our city was under martial law, and 

 storms of discord and unrest filled every heart and mind with dreams of 

 desolation and war — that we could withdraw to that " tempered sunshine, 

 and celestial hues " of the beautiful flowers to soothe our cares. 



As I entered the broad and beautiful avenues to this prototype of 

 something more than earthly, " Favored of Heaven, in that blest mo- 

 ment, all the past forgotton, there is nothing I see which so nearly 

 blends earth and Heaven, as the scenes in part, ^o feebly described. 



There is no place where the outside world is so completely shut out 

 as in floral scenes like this. 



I will quote on this subject some remarks in point by A. J. Down- 

 ing : 



" All beauty is an outward expression of inward good, and so close- 

 ly are the beautiful and true allied, that we shall find, if we become sin- 

 cere lovers of grace, the harmony, and the loveliness with which rural 

 homes and rural life are capable of being invested, that we are sile-ntly 

 opening our hearts to an influence which is higher and deeper than the 

 mere symbol ; and that if we thus worship in the true spirit, we shall 

 attain a nearer view of the Great Master, whose words, in all his mate- 

 rial universe, are written in lines of beauty. 



" And how much happiness, how much pure pleasure, that strength- 

 ens and invigorates our best and holiest affections, is experienced, in be- 

 stowing upon our homes something of grace and loveliness, in making 

 the place dearest to our hearts a sunny spot ; where the social sympa- 

 thies take shelter securely under the shadowy eaves, or grow and entwine 

 trustfully with the tall trees or wreathed vines that cluster around, as if 

 striving to shut out whatever of bitterness or strife may be found in the 

 open highways of the world. 



"What an unfailing barrier against vice, immorality and bad habits, 

 are those tastes which lead us to embellish a home ; to which, at all times 



