THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



197 



Stephenson to his youthful hearers as worthy of their imitation, and showed 

 them that he owed everything, under the blessing of Grod, to his diligence and 

 perseverance. Mr. Smart next adverted to the importance of cultivating a taste 

 for flowers, and of the antidote which pleasure, derived from such a source, 

 would be to the acquirement of habits of vicious indulgence. After severally 

 addressing the successful and unsuccessful competitors in terms of encouragement 

 and advice, the Very Reverend the Dean moved, and the Mayor seconded, a 

 vote of thanks to I\Ir. Smart for his address, which that gentleman acknowledged 

 in appropriate terms. A list of prizeholders was read to the meeting by Mr. E. 

 "Whitlock, the honorary secretary, and the prizes, consisting of writing-desks, 

 workboxes, books, etc., were distributed to the children on Friday morning, 19th of 

 August. 



PoMOLOGiCAL. — At the meeting, held on the 23rd of June, LIr. Hogg in the chair, 

 the first premium of a guinea was awarded to Mr. Turner for the best collection of 

 strawberries. The most remarkable variety in this collection was one named Oscar, a 

 seedling, exhibited for the first time last year, when it was highly commended. Oscar 

 produces a very large fruit, ovate, angular, colour very dark, seeds deeply imbedded, 

 flesh red throughout, solid, firm, and juicy ; flavour very rich, like Underhill's Sir 

 Harry, but an improvement on it. Oscar appears well adapted to bear carriage, 

 on account of its firmness, as samples of it were esliibited by Mr. Bradley, gardener to 

 W. F. N. Norton, Esq., Elton Manor, Nottingham ; and though the footstalks were 

 withered during the journey, the fruit was still plump and uninjured. It is reported 

 to be an excellent cropper, next in earliness to Cuthill's Black Prince, and some days 

 earlier than Keen's Seedling. Mr. Turner is now sending out plants of Oscar, and 

 we anticipate thei*e will be a large demand for it. 



THE JOY OF A aAEDEN. 



■ A wilderness of flowers arouud us Ijdng, 



Tangling our steps the bidden pathway throng ; 

 Jlyrtles and vines bloom there above thee, sighing, 

 As the wind wakes their fibres into song. 



Life here is Eros, that hath ever been, 



The sigh of Death forgot, the shadow Time unseen." 



John E. Seade. 



O BLINDING sunshine and green coolness ! 

 O fresh morning air and dew-powdered 

 gossamers ! O wakeful colours and sleepy 

 odours ! O shivering leaves and rustling 

 bird's-wing ! joyful dawn, with hum of 

 voices ! and sultry noon, with dead still- 

 ness, silent and oppressive ! O mossy 

 turf ! O sparkling fountain ! O dark 

 mould, that, out of thy dead heart, send- 

 est up the joy of summer, in flowers that 

 rise like souls released from the sepulchre ! 

 O emerald spring, crouching in sliyness ! 

 O lusty summer, confronting tlie sun in 

 thy bold strength and ardour! O fiery 

 autumn, gathering the glories of all sea- 

 sons to thyself, to swell the grandeur of 

 thy flaming sacriSce ! and O hoary win- 

 ter, magician and destroyer, by whose 

 touch the world is hushed to rest, and the 

 grave of beauty garnished with a i-obe of 

 whiteness ! Where, but in a garden, shall 

 we see and hear, and press to our heart of 

 hearts the precious wealth of a whole 



creation ? ^\'here, but in a garden, shall 

 we meet with genuine heart-ease ? Where, 

 but in a gnrden, learn the sweet idleness 

 that seems like a dream of Eden ? Where, 

 but in a garden, acquire the quick action 

 and the anxious thought that prove us to 

 be fallen ci'eatures ? Where, but in a 

 garden, realize our dependence upon God, 

 and understand the links that bind us to 

 Him ? Where else see the lilies " how 

 they grow," and the sparrows that fall 

 not but at His bidding ? Where, but in 

 a garden, have the full remembrance that 

 man fell from God in the very morning of 

 his creation, and is brought back, when, 

 like the grass, he is cut down, or like the 

 fig-tree, accepted for his fruit ? Where, 

 but in the world of greenness, and life, 

 and everlasting change, and the growth on 

 growth of things indissolubly linked to- 

 gether read the true lesson of God's love 

 for us, and see the upward yearning of all 

 things that teaches us we may be saved ? 



