THE UTILITY OF FLOWERS. 1% 
by countenances as spotless and pure as their own petals, 
and watched by eyes as brilliant and full of lustre, as their 
own beautiful exhibitions of splendor. 
“ Horticulture is one pursuit of natural science in which 
all sexes and degrees of education and refinement unite. 
Nothing is too polished to see the beauty of flowers. 
Nothing too rough to be capable of enjoying them. It 
attracts, delights all. It seems to be a common field, 
where every degree of taste and refinement may unite, 
and find opportunities for their gratification.” 
The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, remarked, “that in the 
Horticultural Hall, he had witnessed the wonders wrought 
by the florist’s hand; he had seen there what man could 
do, by labor and taste, to enlarge, beautify, and multiply 
the bounties of nature; he had seen how art and wisely 
employed capital were permitted by heaven, to improve 
its own gifts, and felt how impossible it was by language, 
to express the beauty of fruits and flowers, which nature 
and art had combined to improve. Nor could he refrain 
from reflecting that all was the work of well directed 
industry.” 
The Hon, Caleb Cushing, who had just returned from 
his mission to China, made the following remarks in rela- 
tion to woman and flowers: “I am, Mr. President, most 
thankful for the opportunity to look on a spectacle like 
this—on the delicate and beautiful fruits and flowers before 
us. All our associations of beauty and taste are blended 
with flowers. They are our earliest tokens of affection 
and regard. They adorn the bridal brow at the wedding ; 
they are woven in garlands around the head of the con- 
querer; they are strewn on the coffins of the dead. And 
-here is another of their most grateful and beautiful uses— 
ornamenting the table at a festival, and enlivening the 
scene and enchanting the eye. In that ‘central flowery 
land, this is the case at all festivals; flowers there adorn 
