i} 





Tin: ixi-iA i:x(E of iLoR/cri.iiRi- ^\^^ 



All outline study of botany, or (what is sometimes sulistituted tor this) a close observa- 

 tion of nature, is necessary in most of the arts and sciences. The graceful, wavy, curved 

 lines of flowers, leaves and fruits form an important feature in architectural ornamentation,- 

 as well as in the minor arls of cabinet-making, engraving, moldin- and the like. The 

 e\(|uisitc blending of colors in the Howcrs and foliage of plants fuinishcs the painter \'\ith 

 studies which he may imitate but cannot surpass. And the poets ha\e ever been indtlucd 

 to the vegetable kingdohi for some of their happiest flights of brilliant fency. 



A love of flowers will supply a praiseworthy incentive to the merchant, clerk, artisan 

 or laborer to leave behind him the smoke, dust and discomfort of the crowded cit\ , awX 

 bask during an hour's or a day's leisure in the invigorating countr}- air. w hilt' he tnlargcs 

 his stock of knowledge by investigations that gently interest but do not o\ ei tax his intel- 

 lectual powers. The moralist will find in the love of plants and flowers a helpful hand- 

 maiden to religion and virtue; even the mechanical pursuit of the mere trade of gardener 

 has been conducive to a relatively superior morality, and freedom from crime. Horace 

 Mann found that there were fewer gardeners, in proportion to their numbers, than of any 

 other trade or calling in the poorhouses and prisons of Great Britain. Floriculture 

 has also an acl\antaL;c over many amateur jnnsuits in the cheapness and facilitv with 

 which it can be followed, as every plant may be regarded as an unfolded book, and every 

 flower an attractixe object-lesson, while, unlike mechanics, astronomy or chemlstr\, it 

 needs no expensive working apparatus. Flowers are the most delightful of all teachers. 



THE USE OF FLOUEKS. 



God might have bade the eartli biiiii; Ibrtli 



Enough for great and small, 

 The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 



Without a flower at all. 

 We might have had enough, enough 



For every Avant of ours. 

 For luxury, medicine and toil. 



And vet have had no flowers. 



Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 



All dyed with rainbow light. 

 All fashioned with .supremest grace 



Upspringing day and night: — 

 Springing in valleys green and low, 



And on the mountains high. 

 And in the silent wilderness 



Where no man passes by.' 

 Our outward life requires them not; 



Then wherefore had they birth.' 

 To minister delight to man, 



To beautif\- the earth ; 

 To comfort man — to whisper life, 



Whene'er his faith is dim. 

 For who so careth for the flowers 



-.U,„v llo-.-ilt. 





FMOPEKTY UtRAUr 



