126 MASSACFIUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



standard be reached? The first step towards it is to traia the 

 child in early 3ears to love the flowers. The Kindergarten S3stem 

 teaches the little ones that they are flowers in God's great garden 

 of life. It teaches them to cultivate the beauty" of character 

 represented by the flowers ; and, as they get a little older, they 

 are frequently taken out of doors to study the ways of different 

 plants and blossoms and to gather the hardy wayside flowers, in 

 order to cop}' their forms upon slate or paper. As a general rule, 

 children do not need much urging to gather the flowers, but some 

 are indifferent, and without the patience required for a careful 

 study of their beauties. An enthusiastic little girl of my acquain- 

 tance is very fond of flowers. Living half a mile from the school, 

 she often gathers flowers on the way. A year ago last November 

 she brought wild roses, or their buds, to her teacher so late in the 

 month that she was asked how much longer she intended to bring 

 them. Her reply was given on November twent^'-sixth, when she 

 said, " I think I have found the last bud of the year." When 

 such enthusiasm as this is aroused in the children and the taste 

 is farther developed, let schools of design be opened to them, as 

 is the custom in some countries, and, as Americans are happy to 

 know, is being done to some extent in this country. There they 

 will be shown the adaptation of the floral form to higher works of 

 art, as well as to various branches of industr3\ They will observe 

 then how the flower-form enters into the interior decorations of their 

 homes, whether it be in wall paper or carpet, or in the floral 

 designs of exquisite beaut}'^ on Royal Worcester, or cameo-glass 

 vases. They will find types of flowers on the pictures which 

 adorn their walls or in the carving upon useful articles of furni- 

 ture, in the finest laces or in the settings of diamonds and other 

 precious stones. If they look without their homes they find that the 

 frescoes of the walls of churches, or the friezes upon the walls of 

 public buildings are not without these representations of floral 

 forms. If they listen to the inspiring influence of flowers, they 

 will find themselves fascinated, not only with the cop}', but will 

 discover that the flower life has become a part of their own 

 intellectual lives, and also that they must cultivate flowers for the 

 refining and purifying influences over their own soUls and as a 

 means of culture to those in their midst. 



The business man will ask. How is all this education in flower 

 lore and this conventionalizing of flower-form, to affect the 



