of Rural Art and Taste. 



283 



Tlie Flower Mission- 



In the cities of New York and Philadelphia, 

 there have been in active operation this season, 

 societies of ladies who have made it a pleasure 

 and business to gather bouquets of flowers 

 and distribute among the poor and sick in the 

 public hospitals. Charitable individuals have 

 contributed freely of both flowers and money, 

 and the ladies their time to make the idea a 

 genuine success. It is a labor of love, and 

 thousands of blessings from the suff'erers, 

 testify to the appreciation in which the good 

 work has been held. The following lines on 

 this subject lately accompanied an engraving 

 of a flower scene in Harper's Weekly : 



Into the homes of sorrow aud distress 



The rare sweet flowers go to bnd nnd bloom, 

 And Avith their own bright life make glad awhile 



The lives that wither in perpetual gloom. 

 Poor hearts that long have starved for word of love, 



Dim eyes that ne'er behold a beauteous thing, 

 And tired hands that stretch themselves in vaiu 



Tor joys that ever from their grasp take wing. 



To these the flowers on their mission go, 



And breathe a fragrance fraught with new sweet life, 

 And cause an atmosphere of joy and peace 



To enter e'er mid scenes of pain and strife. 

 Sweet buds of beauty ! how they seem to say, 



"Cheer up ! cheer up"! there are kind hearts and 

 true. 

 And though your paths seem over-grown with thorns 



Yet there are flowers still which bloom for you. 



A thousand blessings on the kindly hands 



Which pluck the fragrant flowers for the poor, 

 A thousand blessings in the kindly feet 



Which falter not, but go from door to door, 

 And leave with tender, loving charity 



The sweet joy— breathing gifts of love divine. 

 Who knows what endless flowers of grace and truth, 



The Flower Mission may hereafter twine. 



Death of 31 r. Olin. 



We regret to hear of the death of Mr. 

 Peter 01m, of 01m Brothers, Newark, N. J. 

 An accident, resulting from a vicious horse, 

 and violent throw from a wagon, produced 

 injuries so severe as to cause death within a 

 few hours. He was much esteemed for char- 

 acter and ability as a florist. 



The Wiishington Pear. 



We have cultivated and fruited this pear, 

 and highly commended it for more than 

 thirty years, the first specimen ripening in the 



year 1836. We observe by the public 

 journals that cultivators in many places are 

 just awaking to an appreciation of its ex- 

 cellence. The tree is a handsome, although 

 not a rampant grower, and is one of the 

 earliest bearers, being excelled in this respect 

 only by the Julieme and Bartlett. When 

 well grown, the pear is handsome in appear- 

 ance, the crimson dots on the side next the 

 sun adding much to its beauty. In flavor it 

 is very sweet and excellent. Its drawbacks 

 are — it is not large enough for size to attain 

 celebrity in market, and although very juicy 

 and tender, it is rather breaking than buttery 

 and melting in texture. It is one of the 

 varieties that will flourish in almost any soil. 

 — Country Gentleman. 



A Jtemnrliuble Testi}uoninl. 



The practice of giving testimonials to manu- 

 factures of implements and fertilizers, has 

 received a capital hit by the following, con- 

 cerning a remarAra We manure: " Dear Sir — 

 The land composing my farm had hitherto 

 been so poor that a Scotchman could not get 

 a living ofi" it, and so stony that we had to 

 slice our potatoes and plant them edgeways ; 

 but hearing of your manure, I put some on a 

 ten acre field surrounded by a railroad fence, 

 and in the morning I found that the rocks 

 had entirely disappeared, and a neat stone wall 

 encircled the field, and the rails were split 

 into firewood and piled up systematically in 

 my back yard." 



Govermnent Seed Hags. 



Well, here is a "go," surely. Mr. Vick, 

 the " irrepressible people's favorite,'''' is au- 

 thority for this statement : " We had a laugh 

 — how could we help it, when we read in an 

 order sent by the Great American Govern- 

 ment to a seed house in London, special 

 directions to "put the seed in papers as un- 

 like those of American seed dealers'as possi- 

 ble," and " to be sure and give the package a 

 foreign aspect." These directions were thrice 

 repeated. This is a pretty hard dose for 

 American vanity, but here is a worse one : 

 A few years ago the government would select 

 some political favorite desirous of a trip to 



