INFLUENCE OF FLOWERS UPON NATIONAL LIFE. 121 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



The Influence of Flowers upon National Like. 

 By Mrs. Fannie A. Deane, Edgartown. 



From the earliest daj's of man's history, his life has been 

 closely linked with the care of Nature's life. Whether we use 

 the term " Nature " in a wide sense, applying it to all created 

 existence, or to the life of the smallest insect, or simplest flower, 

 it is equally true. This care, if it has been of the beautiful, has 

 especially helped to unfold and develop those traits of character 

 which have refined and purified man individually, and have tended 

 to the civilization of the most barbarous nations. It is, of course, 

 a well-known fact that certain regions, where from some cause 

 agriculture is obstructed permanently, are commonly inhabited by 

 nomadic tribes, while the highly cultivated nations are found in 

 those lands in which the soil can be easily tilled. China, when 

 she entered into relations with Western Asia, two centuries 

 before the Christian era, had possessed for thousands of years a 

 prosperous agriculture and even horticulture to some extent, and 

 with good reason she may make her boast of her early civilization, 

 while the deserts of Asia are, toda}", as far from civilized life as 

 ever. If we admit, then, that agriculture and its sister horticul- 

 ture contributed in great measure to the wonderful intelligence of 

 that vast country at so early a day, and that they have similarly 

 elevated other nations, it will not be inappropriate to consider the 

 influence of flowers alone upon the life of a nation. In plants, 

 we find our food, substances which may be useful for medicine, 

 fibres which may be woven into materials for clothing, sustenance 

 for our flocks, and timber for the houses in which we dwell and 

 for the ships and steamers that sail over the mighty ocean ; but 

 the vital principle of that ever-lengthening chain of vegetation 

 which so lavishl3' provides for us, is found in the flower. God 

 might have made the flower without its beautiful corolla or exqui- 

 site perfume. The stamens and pistils would have served the 

 purposes of reproduction and all these beneficent gifts for man's 

 comfort might still have been provided ; but the flower is given to 

 us in all its symmetry of form and delicate colorings, in order 

 that its influence upon our hearts may be as widely spread as is 

 the fragrance which is exhaled from its petals. 



