11 



"Recreation,'' says Bishop Hall, "is to the mind 

 what whetting is to the scythe : it sharpens the edge 

 of it. He, however, who spends his whole life in 

 recreation is ever whetting and never mowing, and 

 he that toils and never recreates, is ever mowing and 

 might as well have no scythe as no edge." 



The public interest that is felt in what a great 

 botanical garden affords may be illustrated by 

 flowers alone. According to a recent article in the 

 New York Herald, flower- raising in this country, as 

 a business, a quarter of a century ago was compar- 

 atively insignificant, and there are now 5,000 estab- 

 lishments engaged in raising plants and flowers; 

 more than 300 of which are owned by women. 

 Forty million dollars is invested as capital in this 

 industry, and more than 20,000 persons are em- 

 ployed. The value of this product by the last census 

 was $26,000,000— $12, 000, 000 for shrubs, $14,000,- 

 000 for cut flowers, and of these there were more 

 than 50,000,000 of roses. These establishments now 

 exist in every State of the Union. There are 800 in 

 the State of New York alone. There was not in the 

 year 1880 fifty flower stores in the City of New 

 York. There are now 250, to which I may add the 

 significant fact stated by the Census Bureau that 

 the love of flowers in this country is growing among 

 all classes, the poor as well as the rich. An English 

 writer has said "the cultivation of flowers is of 

 all the amusements of mankind, the one to be 

 selected as the most innocent and the most devoid of 



