104 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ORXAMEXTAL. 



BY Z. S. RAGAN, OF INDEPENDENCE. 



It has been said that horticulture is the flower of agriculture, and 

 it may be further claimed that the ornamental is aesthetic in horticul- 

 ture, and that it is not confined to any station in refined civilized 

 society. From the poor to the wealthy, from the humble cottage to the 

 palatial mansion. 



Adornments to make home attractive and to render home what the 

 poet has claimed " Home, sweet home," should engage the study of all 

 good citizens. The limited dooryard of the humble cottage (not unfre- 

 quently one of the first improvements of the young wife) is to plant 

 some shrubs and flowers^ as best she can, and how often doomed to 

 disappointment from a want of appreciation on account (shall I say,) of 

 her better half suffering the horse or calves to brouse their tender buds, 

 or the rooter invert them by turning the wrong end to sun and view. 

 If we may be allowed the digression, to treat of match-making, would 

 advise the girls to shun the men who have no taste for horticulture* 

 The limited dooryard of the humble new beginner may have some beds 

 of Pansies, Wild Columbine, Blue Flags, Red Lilly, Ladyslipper, Azalia 

 and Mayflower, all native and hardy. To which may be added Verbenas r 

 Yucca, Honeysuckels, Snowball, Syringa, Lilac, etc. Also Trumpet 

 Vine, Virginia Creeper, Wisteria or Virginia Silk Vine trained over or 

 about the cottage as evidence of the best and noblest efforts of the 

 inmates to do what they can to beautify their home and country. To 

 treat of the other extreme, numerous and tasty suburban and country 

 residences through the length and breadth our country might be intro- 

 duced as models of highest praise. 



Mr. Downing has given some fine illustrations in his work on 

 Landscape Gardening, and Henry Winthrop Sargent in his revision of 

 that work adds: "It must be conceded by observing and discriminat- 

 ing persons that the style of our country places is still vastly inferior to 

 the marked improvements in rural architecture." 



Persons do not think of building their own houses but employ 

 skillful artists, yet leave the laying out of the lawn and surroundings 

 to chance without giving thought or study, or calling to their aid a 



