54 THE FLORIST. 



OX FLORAL TASTES, AND THEIR RESULTS. 



The object of a short series of papers, with the above title, will be 

 to assert those higher claims which floriculture has upon the notice 

 and respect of intelligent and moral beings. Like every other pur- 

 suit in M'hich man can engage, this possesses two very different as- 

 pects ; the one prominent and seen by every eye, the other more 

 recondite and difficult to find. When gardening engages the atten- 

 tion from the first of these points of view, as a mere mechanical 

 occupation concerned with the production of articles of commerce, 

 it is even then highly interesting and important ; but when it is 

 also looked upon in its moral relations, as affecting the intellect and 

 the heart, it is raised into its primitive position as a divine institution, 

 and accomplishes the highest results. The conductors of the Florist 

 have always aimed at the cultivation of this more noble purpose of 

 their favourite science, and it is in harmony with this expressed de- 

 sign that we undertake our task. 



The increase of floral tastes must be considered one of " the 

 signs of the times." Any one who is old enough to take a clear 

 view of the last quarter of a century, will, without any strong effort 

 of memory, recall many indications of the fact, that while, in that 

 period, towns and cities have increased in size and outward elegance, 

 the love of gardening and flowers has advanced with at least equal 

 steps. In London, for instance, what unmistakable proofs are fur- 

 nished of the truth of this statement, both in the increase of floral 

 literature, of floral commerce, and of floral tastes around and wdthin 

 its dw^ellings ! What attention floriculture received from the press 

 twenty-five years ago, we are not jDrepared exactly to say ; but we 

 are sure the literature then devoted to it was neither cheap nor 

 popular. Expensive works on botany, and numerous editions of 

 Mawe's Gardeners' Calendar, about met the demand; while now we 

 have gardening newspapers, and many serial works, which find their 

 w'ay into every circle where a flower is loved, or a plot of ground 

 cultivated. The capital expended on w^orks relating to the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil now, as compared with the commencement of the 

 period just mentioned, must bear a far greater proportion to the 

 present population of our country than it did then. If England has 

 doubled its inhabitants within that time, floral literature has certainly 

 increased a hundredfold ; thus proving that a taste for gardening has 

 rapidly advanced. We do not mean to assert that an increase of 

 books on floriculture proves an increase, to the same extent, of 

 floriculturists, for we do not forget that the press exerts an influence 

 then unknown on all subjects. But after making every possible 

 allowance, we think the pleasing fact is established by the literary 

 aspect of the question, that our countrj^men have advanced greatly 

 in the possession of those tastes which regard the productions of the 

 soil, and which contdbute in so many ways to innocent enjoyment. 



The commerce of flowers furnishes certain indications of the fact 



