1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



203 



Children, reared amidst flowers, and encouraged 

 to learn their names and study their habits, are 

 more likelj' to be pliable and attractive, and to 

 possess greater refinement of feeling and expres- 

 sion, than those deprived of the lessons which they 

 may impart. The love of flowers "is the love of 

 nature in detail ; it is a union of aflfection, good 

 taste and natural piety." "Was a cruel, unfeeling 

 or selfish man ever known to take pleasure in 

 working in his own garden ?" If Mistress Eve — 

 a long time ago — had not made a sad mistake in 

 Eden, we should be ready to say that the tempter 

 never found a victim in the garden amid breathing 

 and expanding flowers. But she did eat the apple 

 in that 



"place 



Chosen by the sovereign Planter, when he framed 



All tilings to man's delightful use ; the roof 



Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, 



Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew 



Of firm and fragrant leaf ; on either side 



Acanihux, and each odorous bushy shrub, 



Forced up the verdant wall ; each beauteous flower, 



Iris all hues, roses a.nd jessamine, 



Kear'd high their flourished heads between, and wrought 



Mosaic ; underfoot the violet. 



Crocus and hyacinth, with rich inlay 



BroiderVl the ground, more colored than with stone 



Of costliest emblem." 



We have saidthaieveryhodi/ loves flowers. Were 

 we wrong ? Lord Bacon did not disdain to lend 

 his mighty intellect to their culture. Ariosto took 

 deep pleasure in his little garden, and we wish 

 space would permit us to relate some of the chai'm- 

 ing things that occurred there. 

 , CowpER and Evelyn, Cowley, Pope, Lord 

 Peterborough and Sir Wm. Temple, all culti- 

 vated flowers and wrote about them. The Em- 

 peror Diocletian said : 



"trust me not, my friends, if, every day, 



I walk not here with more delight. 



Than ever, after the most happy fight, 



In triumph to the capltol I rode. 



To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost a god." 



"Flowers ! what associations the word brings to 

 mind. Of what countless songs, sweet and sa- 

 cred, delicate and divine, are they the subject." 

 They are the steady, impartial friends of all, — and 

 like the influence of a good man, whose presence 

 is felt before it is seen, they shed their fragrance 

 and sweet influences over all of every age and 

 station. They are everywhere friends,— whether 

 they bloom in garden, parlor, kitchen, or climb 

 upon trellis-work or rough rock. They gladden 

 the sick room, and cheer the hot and dusty way 

 of the weary traveller. Here the Golden rod 

 nods over, the wall, as he passes, and there the 

 aster, or qiiecn-dai^, bends away from the thicker 

 foliage and peeps into the worn rut, or with his 

 starry ieyes looks him full in the face, and greets 

 him with a smile. The ancients adorned the al- 

 tars of their gods with wreathes of these lovely 

 flowers. 



So the Curled Clematis forms bowers on the 

 wayside, and by the country people is often called 

 Virgin's Bower. See how it lays hold of the al- 

 ders and young maples with its claspers or ten- 

 drils, and mount to the top of the surrounding 

 foliage, to look out at you as you pass along. The 

 French truly name it the "Travellei-'s Co7isolation." 



We have said that the influence of flowers upon 

 the mind and manner is most happy and enduring. 

 That influence has been no less upon the charac- 

 ter of New England farms and homes. Where 

 were seen no enclosed door-yards forty years ago, 

 — where stray cattle and gabbling geese, old 

 wheels, broken carts and rambling wood-piles 

 skirted the house in dire confusion, and huge 

 dogs, as grim as Cerberus, guarded the doubtful 

 way to the door, — now, white palings enclose a 

 spot, sacred to 



"fruits and blossoms that blush 



In social sweetness on the self same bough." 



These not only attract and please the traveller, 

 but they stamp the farm itself with the character 

 of intelligence, refinement and taste, and give it 

 an advanced money value. Children, reared there, 

 go forth into the world with buoyant hearts and 

 hopeful spirits, and filled with those sweet aff'ec- 

 tions that soften and mitigate the harsher aspects 

 of life. They are blessings to their race, shedding 

 kindly influences wherever they trade, travel or so- 

 journ — and though far away from the old home- 

 stead, among whose friendly trees and flowers they 

 passed their early days, they look to it as the 

 deu-est spot on earth, and one to which every lin- 

 gering afiection constantly turns, 



"As the sunflmcer turns to its god, when he sets. 

 The same look that it turned when he rose," 



We must pause — and yet we have said nothing 

 of the 



"Amaranths such as crown the maids 

 That wander through Zamara's shades," 



nor of the 



"Anenwnes, whose leaves unfold. 



With rubies flaming, and with living gold," 



nor of the leafy Arbutus, the Sweet Balm, Cardi- 

 nal Flower, or Balsams, the Spring Crocus, the 

 Chancy Pansy, or Heart's Ease, that Shakspeare, 

 Leigh Hunt and Spenser sing so sweetly about. 

 This was the flower, too, he scattered before Queen 

 Elizabeth in one of her triumphal marches. Hear 

 Spenser sing : 



"Bring hither the pink and purple columbine 

 With gillijlowers. 



Strow me the ground with daffa-dotcn-dilhes. 

 And cowslips, and kmg-cups and loved liltes." 



There are dozens of others, all too beautiful to 

 be dispensed with, — all too full of lessons of love 

 and duty to be neglected. But we have only room 

 to say, that the parents who desire their children 

 to be gentle, refined in manner, speech and feel- 



