ON FLOWERS. 137 



and Balsams were likewise first rate of their kinds, — many of 

 the latter being as large as a Monthly Rose. 



The Committee are well aware of the limited attention 

 which floriculture receives at the hands of our farmers. In 

 this respect our rural population is far behind that of England, 

 and of France. There you hardly pass a cottage, even of the 

 humblest kind, that is not adorned with a border or two of 

 flowers, roses, daisies, tulips, or iris, and which has not 

 climbing plants, — jessamines, and roses, and honeysuckles, in 

 full flower, crowning its windows and porches, and hanging 

 like pictured tapestry, about the walls. 



Mrs. Howitt, in her most interesting work, " Rural life in 

 England," says that " many cottagers are most zealous and 

 successful florists — that the number of flowers now cultivated 

 by them is much increased." and she names "the Polyanthus, 

 the Auricula, the Hyacinth, Carnation, Tulip and Ranunculus, 

 and the splendid Dahlia and Pansy." She speaks, too, of the 

 " many picturesque rustic huts, built with great taste and hid- 

 den by tall hedges, in a perfect little paradise of lawn and 

 shrubbery, — delightful spots to go and read in of a summer day, 

 or to take a dinner or tea in, with a pleasant party of friends." 

 Many such spots as these belong to the poorest class of the 

 English rural population, and it is only to be lamented that, 

 too often, the house is more interesting than the beer-drink- 

 ing and drudging man that lives in it. 



The flower-patch in front, and the garden in the rear, seem 

 to be, as is most natural, the special province and care of the 

 mistress of the household. See here, what a pretty little pic- 

 ture, Olmstead, a farmer of Staten Island,* gives of a garden 

 attached to an English cottage in Herefordshire ;; — " three 

 large evergreen trees grew near the end of the house, so that, 

 instead of the plain, straight, ugly red corner, you see a beau- 

 tiful, irregular, natural, tufty tower of verdure. Myrtle and 

 jessamine clamber gracefully upon a slight trellis of laths over 

 the door ; roses are trained up about one of the lower win- 

 dows, honeysuckle about another, while all the others, above 



* " Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England," by F. L. Olm 

 stead, of Staten Island, N. Y. 

 18 



