152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



the population of Ireland nevertheless kept increasing. 

 This was owing to the potato, which about this time was 

 spreading into cultivation and afforded the Irish and their 

 animals an abundance of food, almost beyond the power 

 of the enemy to destroy, for the potato field cannot be 

 fired hke a cornfield, nor when the root is out of the 

 ground can it be destroyed with much fiicility. 



It would not be proper for me to conclude my remarks 

 upon domesticated plants without some reference to the 

 flowers which have been artificially reared in our gardens, 

 for they, too, have their bearing on civilization. Among 

 the poor it is well that they should aim at something 

 more than bare existence, and the few bright flowers 

 which adorn the cottage garden in addition to the vege- 

 tables, are an advance beyond the mere necessities of life 

 and are good both on account of the refining influence 

 which flowers exercise even over the roughest natures, 

 and because any nation which keeps too near the line of 

 want soon feels the pinch of poverty in seasons of dearth, 

 since the people have nothing which thev can abandon 

 without actual distress. 



Ireland in 1847 ^^^^ India at the present time are 

 instances of what I mean. 



Among the richer classes there is no purer or more 

 healthy and civilizing pleasure than that which is derived 

 from seeing the various flowers springing up in their 

 seasons, refreshing the eye with their lovely hues and 

 gratifying the senses by their fragrance. Some of these 

 flowers bring us acquainted with the flora of foreign lands, 

 while others are monuments of the patient ingenuity and 

 attention with which skilful gardeners have developed 

 their gay forms. 



Modern civilization is fast filling this country with 

 unsightly rows of brick houses and the din and fumes of 

 steam engines. Such uninteresting sights and sounds 



