288 ON THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 



until the end of January, It ought ever to be a maxim in regular 

 plant-houses that no two plants touch ; still we must confess that many 

 who would admit the propriety of the principle are frequently com- 

 pelled to practice otherwise, through want of sufficient accommodation. 

 The Camellias wliicli had been forced into growth in February and 

 March will shortly be ready to open their buds. Let them be liberally 

 supplied with clear and weak liquid manure. We use soot-water and 

 guano in a liquid state, the latter in very small quantities. Nothing 

 can exceed the healthy appearance of the plants so treated. The ap- 

 plication of liquid manures is frequently wrongly conducted. Tiiere 

 is no sucli wholesale manuring in Nature as we see practised in an 

 artificial way. Tlie ammonia of the aniosphere is presented in very 

 weak doses, but in a continuous way. May we not take Nature as a 

 model ? 



ON A LOVE OF FLOWERS. 



BY FLORA. 



The productions of the vegetable kingdom are among the first objects 

 tliat forcibly attract the attention of young children, becoming to them 

 the source of gratifications which are among the purest of which our 

 nature is capable, and of which even the indistinct recollection imparts 

 often a fleeting pleasure to the most cheerless moments of after-life. 



Who does not look back witli feelings which lie would in vain 

 attempt to describe to the delightful rambles which his native fields and 

 meadows afforded to his earliest years ? Who does not remember, or 

 at least fancy that he remembers, the eager activity with which he was 

 used to strip Nature's carpet of its embroidery, nor ceased to cull the 

 scattered blossoms till his infant hands were incapable of retaining the 

 accumulated heap ? Who, on even seeing the first violet of returning 

 spring, much more on inhaling its sweetness, or in catching tlie breeze 

 that has passed over the blossom of the bean or of tlie woodbine, does 

 not again enjoy the very delights of his early childhood? 



It may be said that the pleasure of such recollections is, for the 

 most part, of a moral and intellectual nature ; but the pleasure of the 

 orio-inal enjoyment appears to be principally of a physical character, 

 and is, no doubt, intended to produce at the moment a highly beneficial, 

 though merely physical effect ; for while the eye of the child is at- 

 tracted by the unexpected forms and colours of the jilants and flowers 

 presented to his view, and his mind is instigated to gratify the eager 

 desire of possessing them, he necessarily subjects his limbs to that 

 degree of exercise and fatigue which contributes to the general health 

 of his body. Nor let such pleasures be undervalued in their conse- 

 quence ; they give that moderate stimulus to the whole system wliic^i 

 even the early age of infancy requires ; and by shutting out the list- 

 lessness that would arise from inactivity, they become e\ entually the 

 source of moral and intellectual improvement. 



