The Love of Flowers in America 



in the remoter West, life is too strenuous 

 to leave much space for flower-gardening. 

 Flowers are often seen growing in a little 

 inclosure on a frontier sheep-ranch, which 

 cost not only labor but self-denial, and yet 

 they are hardly seen once a year by any 

 save their owner. The care which it cost 

 the mothers and daughters among the 

 early emigrants to transport seeds, and 

 slips, and roots of the old home flowers 

 from New England, to brighten new homes 

 in the West, has often been described, 

 and the love with which these flowers are 

 cherished by their descendants is well 

 known. 



It is to these people we must look to 

 discover whether the love of flowers and 

 gardening is implanted in a people, not to 

 the wasteful and luxurious dweller in the 

 town, who only uses flowers as a pretext 

 for wanton expense. It should not be 

 forgotten that aside from this extrava- 

 gance, which may show itself in the pur- 

 chase of flowers, as in the purchase of 

 other luxuries, simply because they may 

 be rare and costly, great numbers of peo- 

 ple in the city buy flowers habitually 

 '7' 



