1882.] TKANSACT10N8. 33 



But it was never Design ! The Arch of Heaven is resplendent 

 with stars. Bnt why should their apparent form be repeated, 

 since that form, after all, is simply arbitrary and illusive. There 

 can be "no crown, if no cross"! we were told, at the cost of 

 despoiling Garden and Greenhouse. Theologically, the doctrine 

 may be sound — and fury, signifying notliing. But whnt Florist 

 need be beholden to theological schools, when a higher command 

 bids him look from Nature, up to Nature's God, — considering the 

 lilies of the field ! Design is manifested in the flower itself : not 

 in the morbid and unnatural shapes into whi(;h it may be distorted. 

 By hybridizing and cross-fertilization, the Florist may accomplish 

 as it were, a novel creation : never by the use of sheet-iron and 

 wire. Shall the "counterfeit presentment" of a municipal seal, 

 with whatsoever skill it may be manipulated, be an exception ? 

 Anatomically inaccurate, — a fault of the original from which it 

 was copied ; does the elaborate conceit add anything to our 

 knowledge of flowers ; or extend our acquaintance with the laws 

 that control and regulate their growth ? We sometimes hear of 

 a pretty man. He looks, it is said, as if he had just been taken 

 from a band-box. Would it be a triumph of the Florist's art to 

 multiply tliat species, by an effective and fragrant combination of 

 datura, marigold, and skunk-cabbage ! Yet, would not that also 

 be a Design ? evincing the skill of the artist and, as well, 

 challenging the applause of the groundlings. 



Why should not tlic Florist, if he must work with artifice, avail 

 himself of the full measure of his opportunity ? Why should he 

 not rise to the grandeur of original conception ; and, supplying 

 sliape and substance from his greenhouse, and his inner 

 consciousness, in about equal proportions, produce to an aston- 

 ished world, the — Missing Link ! 



He who cannot look his fellow in the eye, in entire faith and 

 persuasion of the truth of his cause, cannot expect to convince an 

 audience, from the outset sufliciently reluctant. Incorporated 

 to " advance the Science" of Horticulture ! What is " Science "? 

 Is it to know ? from its verb. And yet the wisest of the old 

 Philosophers declared that he knew most who thoroughly realized 

 the extent of his own ignorance. The General Court were of 

 the opinion, Forty Years ago, that there is a Science of Horticul- 



