OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS. 103 



ARTICLE III. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS, &c, 



BY SARAH ELIZABETH. 



It has afforded me much pleasure to observe, that ever since the first 

 number of the Floricultural Cabinet there has been an increasing 

 attention given to the cultivation of flowers, both in exotics and hardy 

 kinds. 



The very cheering change in the present season excites even talent, 

 floral habits, and propensities, and urges to the delightful and health- 

 ful pleasures of the flower-garden. I very recently met with the 

 following remarks on the culture of flowers, which when taken in 

 connexion with the now delightful spring season, I was so much 

 pleased with them as to be induced to forward them for insertion in 

 the May number. 



When summer's dclighful season arrives, rarely in this country too 

 warm to be enjoyed throughout the day in the open air, there is 

 nothing more grateful than a profusion of choice flowers around and 

 within our dwellings. The humblest apartments, ornamented with 

 these beautiful productions of nature, have, in my view, a more de- 

 lightful effect than the proudest saloons with gilded ceilings and 

 hangings of Genoa velvet. The richness of the latter, indeed, would 

 be heightened, and their elegance increased, by the judicious intro- 

 duction of flowers and foliage with them. The odour of flowers, the 

 cool appearance of the dark green leaves of some species, and the 

 beautiful tints and varied forms of others, are singularly grateful to 

 the sight, and refreshing at the same time. Vases of Etruscan mould, 

 containing plants of the commonest kind, offer those lines of beauty 

 which the eye delights in following ; and variform leaves hanging 

 festooned over them, and shading them if they be of a light colour, 

 with a soft grateful hue, add much to their pleasing effect. These 

 decorations are simple and cheap. 



Lord Bacon, whose magnificence of mind exempts him from every 

 objection as a model for the rest of mankind (in all but the unfortu- 

 nate error to which, perhaps, his sordid pursuit in life led him, to 

 the degradation of his nobler intellect), was enthusiastically attached 

 to flowers, and kept a succession of them about him in his study and at 



