THE UTILITY OF FLOWERS. 17 



by countenances as spotless and pure as their own petals, 

 and watched by eyes as brilliant and full of lustre, as their 

 own beautiful exhibitions of splendor. 



" Horticulture is one pursuit of natural science in which 

 all sexes and degrees of education and refinement unite. 

 Nothing is too polished to see the beauty of flowers. 

 Nothing too rough to be capable of enjoying them. It 

 attracts, delights all. It seems to be a common field, 

 where every degree of taste and refinement may unite, 

 and find opportunities for their gratification." 



The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, remarked, "that in the 

 Horticultural Hall, he had witnessed the wonders wrought 

 by the florist's hand ; he had seen there what man could 

 do, by labor and taste, to enlarge, beautify, and multiply 

 the bounties of nature ; he had seen how art and wisely 

 employed capital were permitted by heaven, to improve 

 its own gifts, and felt how impossible it was by language, 

 to express the beauty of fruits and flowers, which nature 

 and art had combined to improve. Nor could he refrain 

 from -reflecting that all was the work of well directed 

 industry." 



The Hon. Caleb Gushing, who had just returned from 

 his mission to China, made the following remarks in rela- 

 tion to woman and flowers : " I am, Mr. President, most 

 thankful for the opportunity to look on a spectacle like 

 this on the delicate and beautiful fruits and flowers before 

 us. All our associations of beauty and taste are blended 

 with flowers. They are our earliest tokens of affection 

 and regard. They adorn the bridal brow at the wedding ; 

 they are woven in garlands around the head of the con- 

 querer ; they are strewn on the coffins of the dead. And 

 here is another of their most grateful and beautiful uses 

 ornamenting the table at a festival, and enlivening the 

 scene and enchanting the eye. In that ' central flowery 

 land,' this is the case at all festivals ; flowers there adorn 



