11 



true, none of the artificial distinctions of science ; — 

 but what superfluous production of this or that organ, 

 what operation of art by the curious effects of culti- 

 vation, can exceed the simple beauty of a permanent 

 species. What skill has imitated or excelled the 

 vivid glory of the ^Cardinal Flower, mocking the 

 dyes of the painter ? what perfection superadded to 

 the fwhite water-lily of unrivalled purity, floating 

 amidst its broad protecting shield-like leaves? Does 

 that little harbinger of our lingering northern springs, 

 $the pale liverwort, which dares to tell us of the 

 coming sunny days, appear more interesting to the 

 cultivated and refined eye, because art has succeed- 

 ed in producing a few more petals, by the destruc- 

 tion of its tiny filaments, which otherwise contrast so 

 delicately with them ? The almost endless varieties 

 which have sprung into existence, in the floral de- 

 partment, it has been asserted, has given alarm to 

 system-makers and scientific men. Whether this be 

 so or not, the too prevailing taste for variety is the 

 more to be lamented than deprecated ; and it becomes 

 the endeavors of every learned and enterprising So- 

 ciety, founded for the encouragement and pursuit of 

 horticultural skill, and a taste for gardening, to form 

 a new standard of merit or value for the subjects of 

 its pursuits. Did Fashion, that mighty potentate 

 over human society, sanction the taste for the pure 

 simplicity of Nature, and were plants admired for 

 their intrinsic value rather than as artificial produc- 

 tions, there would be as much satisfaction, not to sav 

 more intellectual improvement, in that taste which 



* Lobelia Caidiiialis. f Nymplisa O.Iorat.i. } Hepatica triloba. 



