250 FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS. 



ARTICLE II. 



FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS.— No. 12. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE MR. BENJAMIN ELY; 

 WITH REMARKS UPON SOME OF HIS NEW PICOTEES. 



BY MR. WILLIAM HARRISON, SECRETARY TO THE FELTON FLORISTS' SOCIETY'. 



Floriculture has been truly said, by a great and good man, to 

 afford some of the greatest charms and purest pleasures of which 

 human life is susceptible. This seems so self-evident, that little 

 need be said to establish the truth of the assertion. We have every- 

 day proofs of the sovereign sway which the beauty of flowers holds 

 over the minds of almost all classes of society, in those hours of tran- 

 quil contemplation when the clang and turmoil of business have 

 given up their almost ceaseless reign, or the syren blandishments of 

 pleasure have left their debilitated subjects in a state of apathetic 

 satiety. Even children will be found rambling by the river's brink, 

 in the early return of spring, culling their bouquet of Primroses, 

 while all is music and gladness around them, as if rejoicing in the 

 resuscitation of prostrated nature. The experienced florist may, at 

 the same time, be often found bending over his frames of Auriculas 

 and Pulyantbuses, and watching the expansion of every pip, and the 

 prosperity of every new variety, with all the eager anticipation of 

 hope. The student may be often found escaping from his solitary 

 closet, with aching eyes and weary brain, eagerly longing for the 

 same calm and unalloyed enjoyment, as a solace from those hard and 

 dry studies to which his inclination, or his profession, have bound 

 him. The artisan turns from his shop with the same hope, and in 

 the delight afforded by the contemplation of a fine bloom, or the 

 higher feeling excited by discovering a valuable variety in his seed- 

 ling bed, feels all the delicious charms which success affords to the 

 ardent mind of man. The tradesman, after years of anxious specu- 

 lation in the varied path of commerce, retires from the bustle of the 

 metropolis, to some quiet suburban villa, and there, among the many 

 gems which the present advanced state of floriculture offers to the 

 inspection of his admiring eyes, frequently exclaims — 



" These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 

 Almighty '■ thine this universal frame 

 Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then !*' 



