" Let us content ourseh'cs no longer with being mere ' botanists ' — his- 

 torians of structural faets. The flowers are not mere conielv or curious 

 vegetable creations, with colors, odors, petals, stamens ami innumerable 

 technical attributes. The 7vonted insight alike of scientist, philosopher, 

 theologian, atici dreamer is now repudiated in the netv revelation. Beauty 

 is not ' its own excuse for being,' nor was fragrance ever ' 7tiasted on the 

 desert air.' The seer has at last heard and interpreted the voice in the 

 wilderness. The flower is no longer a simple passive victim in the busy 

 bee's sweet pillage, but ratlier a conscious being, with hopes, aspirations 

 and companionships. The insect is its cou7iterpart. Its fragrance is but 

 a perfumed whisper of welcome, its color is as the wooing blush a?id rosy 

 lip, its portals are decked for his coming, and its sweet hospitalities hutnored 

 to his tarrying ; and as it speeds its parting affinity, rests content that its 

 life's consummation has been fulfilled." — William Hamilton Gibson. 



