FLOWERS AND HUMANITY 



can buy. When it is remembered that in many cities there are 

 children who have never seen a buttercup, the value of main- 

 taining flower-gardens in city squares and in every available 

 spot cannot be overestimated. Let us hope that the time will 

 speedily come when every child, both at home and by means 

 of the school-garden, will be taught the fundamental facts of 

 plant life, not alone for the practical advantages to be gained, 

 great as these are, but that they may have through life a never- 

 failing resource, in the pursuit of which they can always find 

 happiness and contentment. 



But great as is the pleasure that flowers bestow, it is far from 

 being the only benefit received from them. It has been rightly 

 said that "nothing teaches us so much in this world as flowers, 

 if we will only watch them, understand the messages they ex- 

 hale, and profit by them. Every lesson in life is taught by the 

 flowers; every message to the human heart is carried in them." 

 Nor is the time devoted by the professional or laboring man to 

 the investigation of flowers wasted, even from a practical point 

 of view. Charles Kingsley has forcibly described the helpful- 

 ness of such studies: 



"I know of few studies to compare with natural history; with the 

 search for the most beautiful and curious productions of nature amid 

 her loveliest scenery, and in her freshest atmosphere. I have known 

 again and again working men who, in the midst of smoky cities, have 

 kept their bodies, their minds, and their hearts healthy and pure by 

 going out into the country at odd hours and making collections of 

 fossils, plants, insects, birds, or some other objects of natural history; 

 and I doubt not that such will be the case with some of my readers." 



"Supposing that any of you, learning a little sound natural history, 

 should abide here in Britain to your life's end, and observe nothing 

 but the hedgerow plants: he would find that there is much more to 

 be seen in those mere hedgerow plants than he fancies now. . . . 

 Suppose that he learned something of this, but nothing of aught else. 

 Would he have gained no solid wisdom.'^ He would be a stupider 



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