fip^ 





"^t Influrnrp of l^lorirulturp. 



I CII littiaiy leave-takings as epilogues and Petivoys have grown 

 111 > ptihips deserved disuse: for, as Shakespeare says, "A good play 

 ntcds no tpilogue;" yet, before taking final leave of a work that has 

 Lonstituted the delightful labor of many years, and bidding good-bye, 

 IS It weie, to the thousands of human beings to whom the book will 

 >ifloid an introduction, the author would fain add a parting woi'd to 

 .ntoice the incalculable moral, intellectual and sesthetic value of flori- 

 L Science, in any department of knowledge, is of intrinsic worth to 

 he hum ui mind, but floriculture is eminently instructive, useful and agree- 

 ible It ill the plants of the v^'orld were of one shape, size and color, there 

 Jl^^^ "would iLsult a monotonous imiformity so burdensome to our imagination 

 is can scaicely be conceived in the presence of the almost infinite variety we 

 now enjoy. Nature, as if enticing us to search for her hidden treasures, has 

 produced many woiidLvfiil forms so different from each other that our curi- 

 osity is awakened when we first observe some unusual product of her handiwork; 

 and, thus stimulated, we are led to look for fresh peculiarities, and to push our 

 investigations into the innumerable recesses of the vegetable kingdom, 

 researches of the botanists have added largely to our list of food-plants, and ha\ e 

 given us a sure guide as to which, among the many varieties of edible plants, are best 

 adapted to supply our wants. Indeed, primitive man must have been a botanist in a 

 small way when he first discovered that plants afforded food fit for his use; so that a rude 

 botany must have been the first science cultivated among men. The first step toward 

 civilization was therefore made by each wild tribe when, with some uncouth dibble, or 

 pointed stick, they planted the first seed in the fruitful earth; and the cu!ti\ ation of plants, 

 though doubtless long confined to the food-plants only, constltuteil an important factor in 

 the career of humanity as it progressed to refinement. Even now, when man has reached 

 the greatest height yet attained, there is no better test of the civilization of the individual 

 or the nation than the degree in which floriculture has become a fine art. So the ama- 

 teur culturist may gather confidence from the thought that his favorite pursuit is the first 

 and the last step in the progress of civilization. A knowledge of the healing proper- 

 ties of plants has been found no less useful by physicians. Indeed, for long ages the 

 healing art was entirely confined to their use; and Liebig has said that all ordinary dis- 

 eases may be cured or averted by a judicious change of the constituents of our plant-food. 



418 



The 



