52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



considering the lateness of the season, are iSne. Smith & Han- 

 chett take a number of premiums, in spite of the formidable com- 

 petition of EUwanger & Barry, whose mammoth fruit shows 

 make a feature of every agricultural fair. In regard to this 

 latter firm, it may be interesting to state that they have more 

 acres of ground in nursery than any other firm in the world, 

 Andre Leroy of Angers, France, not even excepted. They 

 employ 400 men on their 600 acres, and keep 40 horses con- 

 stantly at work drawing manure for their well-kept grounds. 



FLOWERS AND VARIEGATED LEAF PLANTS. 



Of all the luxuries in which men of wealth indulge, we know 

 of none more pardonable than the collection of rare and beauti- 

 ful plants. The cultivation of this taste, unlike that of so many 

 others, brings no remorse, and breeds no misery nor family dis- 

 cord ; but, while it affords a constant temporary pleasure, exer- 

 cises the happiest temporary effect upon all the members of the 

 family. The child of the wealthy citizen, accustomed from in- 

 fancy to the cheerful and enobling influence of a green-house or 

 conservatory, has a love of the beautiful, gradually developed — a 

 love which goes far towards counteracting the malign influences 

 of city life. The hours spent in boyish play in the warm and 

 perfumed atmosphere of his father's plant palace, insensibly pre- 

 pares the man for a happy life in a suburban residence, and the 

 daughter, if linked to the fortunes of a poor man, gains health 

 and happiness from a personal supervision of the little cottage 

 garden. What the children of wealthy parents get thus freely is 

 denied to those of humbler station, and hence the great value of 

 great displays, like this of the American Institute, where the 

 glories of the floral and pomological kingdoms are made visible 

 at cheap cost to the great public. Yesterday, as we strolled 

 along the aisles lined with rows of shrubs and plants, lingered 

 by the tables of cut flowers, and paused at the lily basin to see 

 the monster Victoria or the pendant orchids, we noticed with 

 satisfaction the delight of poor children and their hard-working 

 parents at seeing the beautiful things around them. 



Now that the managers of the Institute have learned how great 

 a Horticultural show may be made at the metropolis, we trust 

 they will be induced to make it a permanent thing among us, by 

 erecting suitable buildings and having those weekly exhibitions 

 which have done so much toward the development of rural taste 



