MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 21 
he | "Flowers. — 
Rev. Mr. Tuttle then read his essay on Flowers. 
The essay was accepted, the thanks of the Society tendered, and 
a copy requested for publication in the Transactions. ~ 
The following is the essay : 
It can be said of flowers, but scarcely of any other thing, that they are 
universally admired. Human nature wW&turally varies so much, and educa- 
tion diversifies it so much more, there are few objects in this world which 
affect us all alike—which affect us all in any degree. Music appeals to a 
popular chord, but persons are found who do not care to hear it, and a 
small number who have a positive aversion to it, but who ever knew an 
individual, civilzed or savage, cultivated or uncultivated, good or bad, 
who did uot display more or less fondness for flowers? Did the man or 
woman ever live who hated flowers? If not, what better proof do we need 
that flowers answer a common want and come nearer the soul of man than 
any other material thing—that they are almost as much a necessity as the 
air we breathe. Some persons take especial enjoyment in mountain scen- 
ery, others prefer wide stretching prairie; some would have their home 
enveloped in thick clumps of trees, while others would have a green lawn 
and open sunlight; but no one asks for field, or forest, for glen or garden, 
for hill sides or river banks, for private laws or public parks, where flowers 
do not grow. Whatever else we have flowers must complete its beanty. 
Beecher said: ‘‘ Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot 
to put a soulinto.” But are we sure God did not puta soul into them. 
Richter, than whom no man ever had a keener insight for nature, quotes 
Undine as saying: 
‘*T once fancied a paradise for the spirits of devarted flowers.” 
The very name of Pansy suggests a human quality. ‘‘ Look,” says the 
poet Read: 
** Look how the blue-eyed violets glance leve to one another.” 
Longfellow writes: 
‘* How like they are to human beings.” 
Flowers possess a universal fitness for 
Symbols of Sentiment. 
There is no time or place when flowers are inappropriate, no decoration 
to which they cannot add a charm. They lend fragrance and beauty to 
homes of joy and to homes of sorrow. The bride who wore orange blos- 
soms on her wedding day, when dead has her coffin wreathed with immor- 
telles. Flowers may tell our love for the living, and our mourning for 
those who have passed away. With equal fitness they adorn the cradle 
and grave—the portals of life and the portals of Heaven. There is no pri- 
vate meeting of friends, no public meeting of friends, no public festival, 
nor anniversary of any kind, no birth, no baptism, or religious ordination, 
which they may not embellish or grace with some sentiment. They appear 
oe oT. ee? 
