402 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



We can look to the Daisy for simplicity and unaffected air, as the 

 Hyacinth for constancy, with its bells of purple, white and bluc,ringing 

 out on the air, a soft peel of music. 



In all this group of flowers do we find the Sensitive plant compan- 

 ionless and alone, breathing forth from some quiet corner, sensibility and 

 delicate feeling, but, as Shelly says, '' The sensitive plant was the earliest 

 up-gathered into the bosom of rest, a sweet child, weary of its delight, 

 the feeblest, and yet the favorite, cradled within the embrace of night," 



No one can help being near to Nature, watching thus th-: unfolding 

 life in all this floral world ; even the Persian in the far east, delighted in 

 their perfume, and wrote his love in nose-gays, while the cupid of the 

 ancient Hindoos tipped his arrows with flowers, and orange flowers are a 

 bridal crown with us. 



Bonnie May brings us also the yellow Cowslips for pensiveness and 

 winning grace, while in the old fashioned gardens of our grand-fathers 

 will we find Hollyhocks for ambition, with Periwinkles for pleasures of 

 memory ; the Lady-slipper for capricious beauty. Larkspurs for levity, 

 while in their tiain comes Sweet William, denoting galLmtry, and the 

 Bachelors Button for celibacy, while the Marigolds round out the group 

 with grief. 



Now just a bit of the lonely Wall-flower's history. ''It is said, 'twas 

 once a bonnie lass, who a sprightly youth did love, and to have it fully 

 proved; up she got upon a wall ; but alas she had a fall, where she 

 bruised and died ; Jove, in pity of the deed, and her loving, luckless 

 speed, turned her into this plant we call now, the flower of the wall." 



In all, if we only look, wall we find some token of their nature an 

 example worthy of emulation. "The red rose says be sweet and the 

 lily bids be pure, the hardy brave chrisanthemum be patient and endure. 

 The violet whisper give, nor grudge nor count the cost The v/oodbine 

 keeps on blooming in spite of chill and frost ; and so each gracious 

 flower has each a several word, which read together maketh up the mes- 

 sage of the Lord." 



