130 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have figured conspicuously in English politics. It has been urged 

 that if women were alloAved suffrage, the voting places would be 

 purer and that her presence would have a tendency to refine her 

 brothers. We need not wait for that day to come, but may com- 

 mence now to make the atmosphere healthier and purer in these 

 voting halls. Decorate them with flowers as j'ou do 3"our churches 

 until the perfume of these gifts of nature is more pervading than 

 the odor of tobacco, and even the coarsest natures will feel their 

 influence. Teach them that as the flower is pure so the ballot 

 must be kept pure, and that it is a sacred trust to elect officers 

 for city, state, or nation. Do you say that this is a sort of millen- 

 nial doctrine — a condition that can never be obtained? I believe 

 that there is something within the heart of nearly every man or 

 woman, even though he or she be a hardened criminal, that would 

 in time respond to the influence of flowers, as surely as it would 

 respond to the kind act of some near friend. 



In all receptions given to prominent personages, flowers are 

 used profusely. Whether it be an ovation to our President, or to 

 the representative of royalty, we welcome him with flowers, 

 adorn his carriage, and strew his pathway with the choicest blos- 

 soms, and let the flowers utter our adieus. Thus the people 

 cause the flowers to express most beautifully, though silentl}', the 

 respect, the love even, of the nation. There may have been, in 

 some instances, political ambitions to be promoted by these out- 

 lays for flowers, but we will hope that these cases have been rare. 



Use, then, the flowers for inspiration in your mass-meetings, in 

 j'^our elections, and, other things being equal, vote for the men 

 whose characters have become ennobled in part, at least, by a 

 love of flowers. 



The press of our own country has done much to enlighten and 

 elevate the nation in all subjects pertaining to national life and to 

 the progress in those departments which constitute it, and it has 

 not neglected to awaken an interest in flowers through the col- 

 umns of its great dailies. The illustrated descriptions of flowering 

 plants, sent out from time to time b3' those who cultivate them for 

 sale, have still more increased the knowledge of the masses, while 

 such botanical clubs as that under the direction of Mr. Britton 

 and others in New York, all aid in increasing the enthusiasm of the 

 nation for its flowers. The exhibitions given from time to time 

 by your Society, as well as by others of the same kind throughout 

 the country, where the rarest and most exquisite products of 



