90 

 FLOWERS. 



Rev. John L. Russell, Chairman of the '' Committee on 

 Flowers," offers the following report : — 



The offering of premiums and gratuities for flowers by the 

 Essex Agricultural Society, indicates that it appreciates the re- 

 lation floriculture holds to the improvement of the earth. The 

 same remark obtains in regard to the mode in which flowers are 

 to be exhibited, viz : in '* boquets. floral designs, cut flowers," 

 &c., and in specifying " native flowers " as worthy of premium 

 or gratuity, it is evident that these are to take equal rank with 

 the choicest exotics. 



It is still a too common error, that the cultivation of flowers 

 is of so distinct an occupation that it might seriously interfere 

 with the usual farming, or that it is unworthy of the time and 

 care of the family. But this error vanishes on a moment's re- 

 flection, in the single and correct idea of what a flower really 

 is. Everybody loves flowers it can be safely asserted ; at least 

 no one entirely averse or indifi'erent to them has ever come to 

 my knowledge. All plants, at some period of their growth, 

 are furnished with an entirely different set of leaves or foliar 

 appendages, to which the learned affix significant names, and 

 which leaves differ also usually in color and fragrance. They 

 may be very showy and conspicuous, or quite otherwise ; but 

 it is all the same in point of fact, and they are equally flowers. 

 The blossoms of the common potato are truly elegant, and are 

 worthy of being tied up into a boquet with other and different 

 blossoms of the Solanum family, such, I mean, as are admitted 

 to be flowers and which are cultivated with unusual care. 

 The flowers of the onion have the same structure and the same 

 claim as other liliaceous plants, only they do not smell so sweet. 

 And so with native flowers ; we know many far more beautiful 

 than those taken so much care of, in the garden or the green- 

 house. Some plants too are admitted as floricultural objects, 

 whose flowers are inconspicuous or comparatively mean, but 

 whose foliage is diversified by tints or beautiful by contrast of 



