3io AN HOUR WITH THE HOLLYHOCK. 



reflection tells us that rest is necessary to ensure a 

 vigorous growth and perfect development of flowers. In 

 spring all is activity ; our hopes rise with the growth of 

 the plant, and by its blossoming are our expectations 

 realised. And hope clingeth even around decay. We 

 know that the flowers must fade ere the harvest can be 

 secured, and to that end are we looking for the continua- 

 tion of our stock and the rearing of flowers more dis- 

 tinguished for beauty. And this is one of a class of 

 recreations that is obtaining so great a hold on the 

 affections of our countrymen a recreation which is made 

 to fill agreeably the hours of relaxation, and to adorn the 

 dwellings which they love. Other countries may surpass 

 us in the mere love of flower 's, but gardening, considered as 

 an art, is essentially an English recreation. It accords 

 thoroughly with the quiet contemplative character, 

 domestic habits, and religious nature of an Englishman. 

 And surely it is a source of gratulation to find the love of 

 gardening, with its moralising and refining tendencies, 

 spreading in every conceivable direction. 



A few years since gardening was confined to the 

 opulent, the man of leisure, or the curious. Now, few men 

 of business are without their pet flowers their Hollyhocks, 

 Roses, and the like. Even our husbandmen, whose 

 gardens are, as they should be, chiefly devoted to the 

 useful, can yet find spare nooks in which to place the 

 flowers they love. And whether they be the wild flowers 

 of their native valley, gathered in their course to or from 

 the scenes of their labour, or a few exotics, the gift of some 

 kindly neighbour, they become alike tokens of industry 

 and sweet memorials of home. Modern changes have 

 made gardening comparatively inexpensive, and one of its 

 greatest recommendations is its freedom from selfishness 

 its accessibility to all. Yes, indeed, the cultivation of 

 flowers is one of the least selfish of human pleasures ; it 

 has a special tendency to subdue this dominant principle of 

 the human breast. How few of the gardens of the wealthy 



