174 Prof. RusselVs Address before the 



only survived. This being carefully saved, and caused to 

 root, produced, after the most sedulous care, superadded to 

 the original expense, an ordinary flower only. 



The pansy requires a rich, cool and moist soil. To be 

 sure of good kinds, the seed only of the very best must be 

 sowed. This is difficult to procure. Sometimes only a pod 

 or two can be gathered on a large plant. Raise your own 

 seed, if you want to find your experiment successful. As 

 they seldom produce from seed the same, it is plain that they 

 must be saved by cuttings or layers. The pansy has also good 

 and bad qualities, such as form, color, tints, &c. &c. It makes 

 an elegant plant for the parlor, in spring months, blossoming 

 for a considerable time. 



The true pansy is the little and old fashioned viola tricolor. 

 Who does not remember this as one of the earliest blossoms 

 of his youthful experience.'' It may be denominated the chiWs 

 jioiver, so intimately is it connected with infantile sports and 

 pursuits. Exquisite gems of its varieties may be raised. A 

 little attention to it will produce many sorts, as rich as its 

 larger sized co-species. Some of the deepest dyes may be 

 found in the heartsease. Its extreme hardihood should re- 

 commend it to our care and notice. The warm, sunny days, 

 equally of late November and early March, expand its petals. 

 How eagerly we pluck its blossoms, laden with the welcome 

 perfume of promised vernal treasures! It is also the poet's 

 flower. And who that loves poetry, loves not the flower, 

 however humble and mean? Thus, among others, the immor- 

 tal Milton sings: — 



Flowers were the couch,- 



Pansies, and violets, and asphodel, 



And hyacinths, — earth's freshest, softest lap. 



The season of the Rose next comes under notice. Then, 

 too, comes flowery, blooming June. The queen of flowers, 

 the rose of countless hue and shade, enamels earth's'most luxu- 

 riant carpet of green in breathing, living lustre. With this in- 

 teresting flower there "is indeed associated an almost inde- 

 scribable and instructive feeling of real, refined pleasure, which 

 scarcely any other, the humble violet excepted, can awa- 

 ken within us. The rose — the first glorious harbinger of 

 joyous summer, and the lingering blossom of its sunny^months — 

 the rose, whether wild or cultivated, single or double, rambling 

 and climbing in vagrant festoons, over the thicket and stone 

 wall, or prim and upright under the tutoring care of the curious 



