THE. 



" -i^^kL ^ 



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. I. 



APRIL, 1S47. 



No. 10. 



We are once more unlocked from the chil- 

 ling embraces of the Ice-King ! April, full 

 of soft airs, balm-dropping showers, and fitful 

 gleams of sunshine, brings life and anima- 

 tion to the millions of embryo leaves and 

 blossoms, that, quietly folded up in the bud, 

 have slept the mesmeric sleep of a northern 

 winter — April, that first gives us, of the 

 northern states, our proper spring flowers, 

 which seem to succeed almost by magic to 

 the barrenness of the month gone by. A 

 few pale snowdrops, sun-bright crocuses, 

 and timidly blushing mezereums, have al- 

 ready gladdened us, like the few faint bars 

 of golden and ruddy light that usher in the 

 full radiance of sunrise ; but April scatters 

 in her train as she goes out, the first rich- 

 ness and beauty that really belong to a 

 temperate spring. Hyacinths, and daffodils, 

 and violets, bespread her lap and fill the air 

 with fragrance, and the husbandman beholds 

 with joy his orchards gay with the thousand 

 blossoms — beautiful harbingers of luscious 

 and abundant crops. 



All this resurrection of sweetness and 

 beauty inspires us with a desire to look into 

 the Flower Garde?i, and to say a few words 

 about it, and the flowers themselves. "We 

 trust there are none of " our parish," who, 



56 



though they may not make flower gardens, 

 can turn away with impatient or unsympa- 

 thising hearts from flowers themselves. If 

 there are such, we must, at the very thresh- 

 hold of the matter, borrow an homily for 

 them from that pure and eloquent preacher, 

 Mary Howitt : — 



"God might have made the earth bring forth 



Enough for great and small, 

 The oak tree and the cedar tree. 



Without a flower at all. 



Our outward life requires them not — 

 Then wherefore had they birth? 



To minister delight to man. 

 To beautify the earth. 



To comfort man, to whisper hope 



Whene'er his faith is dim ; 

 For whoso careth for the flowers, 



Will much more care for him !" 



Now, there are many genuine lovers of 

 flowers who have attempted to make flower- 

 gardens — in the simplicity of their hearts 

 believing it to be the easiest thing in the 

 world to arrange so many beautiful annuals 

 and perennials into " a living knot of won- 

 ders," — who have quite failed in realizing all 

 that they conceived of, and fairly expected, 

 when they first set about it. It is easy 

 enough to draw upon paper a pleasing plan 



