82 



Warren, Winship, Hovey & Co., John Hovey, Mason, Mel- 

 ler, and Carter. 



From Joseph Beck & Co., a superb collection of German 

 Asters of every variety. Thirteen distinct varieties of Zinnia 

 elegans, of the following colors : — white, blush, pink, violet, 

 light purple, dark purple, salmon, yellow, orange, light scar- 

 let, dark scarlet, light crimson, and deep crimson. Speci- 

 mens of Euphorbia variegata, Centaurea of sorts ; improved 

 variegated, and other Marigolds, together with a great variety 

 of other annuals, and cut flow^ers. 



The wreaths were made and presented by Messrs D. Hag- 

 gerston, J. W. Russell, and E. Sayers. 



We shall close our report with a few brief remarks, and 

 some quotations from various authors on the love, and use 

 made of flowers by the inhabitants of several parts of the 

 world. 



''Flowers!" says Mr. BowTing, -'what a hundred asso- 

 ciations the word brings to my mind ! Of what countless 

 songs, sweet and sacred, dehcate and divine, are they the sub- 

 ject ! A flower in England, [and we will add, in America,] 

 is something to the botanist, — but only if it be rare ; to the 

 florist, — but only if it be beautiful ; even the poet and the 

 moralizer seldom bend down to its eloquent silence. The 

 peasant never utters to it an ejaculation — the ploughman (all 

 but one) carelessly tears it up with his share — no maiden 

 thinks of wreathing it — no youth aspires to wear it : but in 

 Spain ten to one but it becomes a minister of love, that it 

 bears the voice of poetry, that it crowns the brow of beauty. 

 Thus how sweetly an anonymous cancionero sings : 



" Put on your brightest richest dress, 

 Wear all your gems, blest vale of ours ! 

 My fair one comes in her loveliness, 

 She comes to gather flowers. 



" Garland me wreaths, thou fertile Tale , 

 Woods of green your coronets bring ; 

 Pinks of red, and lilies pale, 

 Come with your fragrant offering. 



