17 



versed in this flower lore, has but to select his specimens when he 

 wishes to write a letter, ties up his highly-colored "figures of 

 speech", to be deciphered by his favored correspondents. We 

 elderly people do not affect this style of literature much. With 

 young lovers it is more common, and we venture the remark that 

 no red letter day of old can compare in good fortune with that 

 which brings to the anxious swain the dehcate but expressive token 

 that his suit is accepted. 



We began our plea for the cultivation of flowers by claiming that 

 they belong pre-eminently to women ; but not for a moment would 

 we concede that they are her exclusive right. There are those who 

 are too ready to admit it. Indeed, the idea seems to prevail pretty 

 extensively that to see a man giving any marked attention to such 

 ephemeral and useless productions shows weakness and effeminacy. 

 People of this sort will tell \ou they think very httle of "posies", 

 as they call them, while the vei'y term they use, and the shallow 

 contempt they show, are enough to convince any intelligent person 

 that they stand sorely in need of just such an influence as these 

 most beautiful of tbe earth's productions could give. Surely, if 

 woman needs them for inspiration, man needs them no less for 

 refinement. If these things are so, the florist's occupation is not so 

 trivial as at first thought it may seem. The agencies he creates are 

 pure and elevating. If he is true to his profession, and has the 

 time and means, he is not content to copy the productions of others, 

 but becomes an artist, trying his skill at fancy pieces ; pushing his 

 designs, it would seem, tip into the very possibilities of Nature, and 

 with what success may be seen almost any gala day in the marvels 

 of floral beauty that by turns challenge our admiration, or tempt 

 our avarice. One needs only to compare the common wild rose, 

 beautiful as it is, with the finer cultivated varieties, to be convinced 

 that it has been under the tutelage of refined and appreciative 

 minds. He who can take the tri-colored violet and transform it into 

 the modern pansy, not contenting himself with giving it (like its 

 original) a uniform pattern, but compelhng it to sport into number- 

 less varieties, each vieing with the others in its peculiar styles of 

 beauty. He who can do this must have in him something of the 

 creative power of genius. He may not be able to originate species, 

 but he works in a department of nature very near to that where all 

 forms and materials lie plastic under the Divine hand. Appealing 

 thus as they do to the higher sentiments, we might reasonably ex- 



