1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



timony was unanimous in favor of Italian bulbs, 

 for which they were willing to pay a larger 

 price, asserting that the yield of flowers was 

 from 15 to 20 per cent, more from Italian than 

 American grown bulbs. This did not apply, 

 however, to Florida grown bulbs, concerning 

 which I could get no information. 



CONSIDER THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD. 



Nothing on earth seems to yield such serene 

 and enduring content as the acquirement of a 

 genuine love for plants of all sorts. Is it in part 

 owing to that annual resurrection which makes 

 them ever new and attractive, like the presence 

 of a dear friend after a term of absence ? We 

 become attached to animated beings, but thej^ 

 die, and we see them no more, and presently we 

 forget them. But there is something wonder- 

 fully adherent in the constancy of the lover of 

 plants, and something incomparably exalting in 

 their influence upon those who care for them 

 for their own sakes. 



A letter just received from an old friend whom 

 I knew very long ago as fond of garden recre- 

 ations and experiments, affords an instance of 

 this genial influence. He is now on the verge 

 of 80, yet he is still as fresh and as full of talk 

 about plants and planting and greenhouse 

 shelter, aiid apparently as cheerfully occupied 

 with them as ever. What is the secret that 

 secures such pleasure even in the very winter of 

 life? Is there an elixir only, or is there a 

 religion, a GocVs love, in this caring for the 

 flowers of the field ? and is it their endless va- 

 riety that makes these quiet friends never tiring, 

 or is it the continual change in each one that 

 keeps contemplation ever fresh like the Vestal 

 fires? For each one has its own orbit — passing 

 through the glories of summer, the autumn 

 decline, the winter sleep, and re-appearing again 

 and again forever in a vernal resurrection. If 

 the rainbow is a symbol of God's favor and pro- 

 tection, are not the bright plants which the 

 Creator seems to have pressed upon our notice 

 by causing their presence in every nook, a mani- 

 festation of His favor, a glimpse of good things 

 to come? For if the grass does not die, but only 

 sleeps, much more shall not we, nor our resur- 

 rection be less gloi'ious. 



Those pregnant verses in Genesis which give 

 so much of the world's vast history condensed in 



so few lines — do they, when they describe 

 Adam''s life and work in a garden — do they mean 

 that his race owes its superiority over the other 

 races of men adverted to in the sacred lines be- 

 cause of having learned to till and keep a 

 garden, to win the service of animals, and to live 

 quiet and harmless, yet actively busy and 

 observant lives? 



In the times when strife and ferocity prevailed 

 more than now, it was said that " Whom the 

 God's love die young." But there are abundant 

 cases of God's manifest favor being shed upon 

 and continued to a far old age, as in the case of 

 my friend. 



Here, theii, is a path safe to walk in. In it are 

 to be found sweet content and serene happiness, 

 and this being so, our churches, and yet more 

 our schools, should guide at an early age the 

 inclinations of all children to the employments 

 and the pleasures of the garden, giving practical 

 lessons in this first of all arts— the one upon 

 which all the glory and the strength of our race 

 are founded. 



Nothing will do so much to advance universal 

 comfort and content as thus imparting, uni- 

 versally, a love for the life-assuring art of making 

 grass grow and trees bloom. Then, and not till 

 then, will the implements of war be wrought 

 over for peaceful uses ; and then, and not till 

 then, will all men live without dread of penury, 

 or tyranny, or punishment. 



For then they will recover the lost Eden, and 

 extend over all the earth that Mesopotamian 

 Paradise in which the race had its germ. They 

 will understand the dangerous admixture of 

 good and evil that has kept all the offspring of 

 Adam in a fever for thousands of years, and re- 

 jecting the evil, will gradually grow vinder God's 

 favor into the perfection of humanity. 



MOSAICULTURE. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE N. Y. COURIER DES ETATS 

 UNIS. 



Mr. Nardy, horticulturist at Hyeres, south of 

 France, one of the French delegates to the Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and Presi- 

 dent of the French Workingmen's Delegation to 

 this country, has permitted us to look over his 

 traveling notes, and we extract the following, 

 showing us the present state of gardening m 

 France : 

 " I have," writes Mr. Nardy," made a grand prom- 



