140 ON FLOWERS. 



Cherish then the beautiful in nature and in art, and if you 

 cannnot (and few can,) cherish it in costlier sculpture and 

 painting, you may easily and cheaply cherish it in those 

 sources from whence the " human arts divine" have derived 

 their most perfect types and patterns, cherish it in floriculture 

 and in flowers. And a knowledge of this culture is so easily 

 acquired, and its practice is so simple, so gratifying, and, at the 

 same time, so exciting and so enchanting, and springs up so 

 readily under the least encouragement, that we wonder that 

 men and women do so greatly neglect it. 



We wonder that about every farm house and cottage and 

 even shanty, that has the smallest space about it to spare, there 

 are not found, in all the beautiful sequence of their flowering, 

 the tiny Snowdrop and Crocus, that early pop up their pretty 

 heads through the snow-wreath to kiss the mild spring sun, 

 or the vernal Phlox, or white and yellow Primrose, or the 

 crimson and blue and rosy Auricula, with its many flowered 

 blossoms, in magnificent disproportion to its little stalk, shoot- 

 ing out their lovely petals to welcome the " great god of day," 

 or "sweetly blushing Hyacinth,"* enriching the perfumed air 

 with its dew-covered campanulous flowers, that sparkle in the 

 glowing beams of the morning, — or gaudy Tulips, bizarre, 

 and rose-colored and feathered, — justly crowned " King of 

 Flowers," with its interminable variety of tinted shades and 

 colors, — or later summer Snap-dragons, and " Daisies pied and 

 violets blue," and Bell-flowers and Balsams, Larkspurs, Sweet 

 Williams, Iris, Paeonies, and Asters, — and (if there be a King, 

 so is there, as Sappho sung, a " Q,ueen of Flowers," the 



" Blusliing Rose with virgin streaks, 



That paints the down of Venus' cheeks. — Anacreon. 



and the great, gorgeous, autumnal Dahlia, high up on its stiff 



foot-stalk, looking all about the neighborhood, 



To see 



If there can be 



Aught gaudier than she ! — The Committee! 



Requiring the smallest amount of care and time to their suc- 

 cessful growth and flowering, we wonder that they are all but 



* " Suave rubens hyacinthus." — Virgil. 



