BEPORT ON FLOWERS. 



BY T. G. HIINTrNGTON. 



It was a pleasant duty, that to wlncli you assigned us, of looking 

 over and passing judgment upon the floral exhibition at your late 

 festival. *• 



The pleasure of examination was unalloyed, for the coUeclions 

 were large in numbers and variety, and were tastefully arranged. 

 The exhibition of varieties of verbenas, flox, pansies and gladioli, 

 was unexpectedly full and fine. We are as tenacious perhaps, of 

 our right to pass judgment upon a display of this kind, as we are 

 pleased with its beauty, but when it comes to publishing that judg- 

 ment, there is a mixture of alloy with the pleasure, and a lurking 

 wish that it might remain "private," as this is one which no one can. 

 impeach. It is a matter of regret, but unfortunately florists, like 

 musicians, are sometimes fierce in their rivalries, and he who sits as 

 umpire in their contests for superiority, will be in great danger, as a 

 reward for his labor of love, of turning himself into a "Love Lies 

 Breeding." It must be regarded, we think, as one of the proofs of 

 human depravity, that flowers should be made to minister to so de- 

 plorable a catastrophe. We lovers of these most lovely things, 

 should take a lesson fi*om the little preachers themselves, who stand 

 side by side, holding their cups of blessing to all who will enjoy 

 them, and shaking their incense on the sin, without a shade of jeal- 

 ousy to mar their beauty or embitter their fragrance. With this 

 bad element eUminsited, the love of floweis is perhaps the purest 

 earthly passion of which the mind is capable, and on this account it 

 is pleasant to know that their cultivation is on the increase. This 

 is the case not only in the larger towns, where evidences of growing 

 trade in this and other directions are to be expected, bat in scattered 

 villages and even in more secluded places, where the tide of fashion 

 never flows, not infrequently one sometimes meets with exhibitions 

 of floral beauty as enchanting as they are surprising, and leaving 

 no room to doubt that, however overlaid with grosser coverings, 



