226 THE FLORIST. 



sole companion of a prisoner ; and the favour this little romance has 

 enjoyed proves how natural is the sentiment it unfolds. The most 

 severely religious minds, however indifferent to art or scenery, are 

 not unfrequently alive to this feeling. The constant allusion to flowers 

 in a metaphorical way in the Scriptures, the rich poetical meaning 

 attached to them in the East, the Lily that always appears in pic- 

 tures of the Annunciation, the Palm-leaves strewed in our Saviour's 

 path, the crown of Thorns woven for his brow, and his declaration 

 of the field Lilies, " that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 

 like one of them," indicating that his pure eyes had momentarily 

 rested on their familiar beauty, lend to such persons a hallowed sense 

 of their attractiveness. There is yet another reason for this excep- 

 tion to a prosaic view of what is merely charming in itself, which 

 those disposed to bigotry make in favour of flowers ; it is, that they 

 symbolise immortality. No common figure of speech is more im- 

 pressive to the peasant than that which bids him see a " type of 

 resurrection and second birth" in the germination of the seed, its 

 growth, development, and blossoming. Again, too, there are the 

 associations of childhood, whose first and most innocent acquisitions 

 were gathered flowers, emblems of its own exuberance, offerings of 

 its primitive love. I imagine the sense of colour, now regarded as 

 a separate and very unequally distributed faculty, is one of the ear- 

 liest developed ; it explains the intense gratification even of an infant 

 at the sight of a Tulip ; and there is reason to believe that the hues 

 of flowers are the most vivid tokens of enjoyment that greet the 

 dawning mind. 



[To be continued.] 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



August 6. — Among subjects of exhibition, that which excited the most 

 interest, in a fioricultural point of view, was a collection of Holly- 

 hocks, in spikes and single blooms, from Mr. Chater of Saffron Wal- 

 den. The kinds consisted of Attraction, light ground, beautifully 

 veined ; Atrosanguinea, dark crimson ; Black Prince, one of the 

 darkest of Hollyhocks ; Coccinea, bright red ; Delicata, French white ; 

 Formosa, claret ; Magnum Bonum, maroon ; Model of Perfection, 

 white; Napoleon, red and buff; Purpurea elegans, purple; Queen, 

 blush ; Rosea grandiflora, pink ; improved varieties of Rosea alba. 

 Snowball, and Wellington; Sulphurea perfecta, sulphur; Comet, 

 ruby red ; Pulchella, exquisitely formed rose ; Mr. C. Baron, deli- 

 cate salmon; Elegans, blush; and Commander-in-chief, the latter 

 with a flowering spike at least 3 feet in length. The same grower 

 also produced some nice seedlings, not yet " sent out," among which 

 was a kind named Walden Gem, an improvement on Comet in point 

 of colour. A collection of 24 varieties of Hollyhocks in the shape 

 of single blooms was also contributed by Mr. Bragg of Slough. 



