



Garlands of Flowers, 





BY HENRY PHILIPS, F.R.S. 



The interest which flowers have excited in the breast of 

 man from the earliest ages to the present day, has never been 

 confined to any particular class of society, or quarter of the globe. 

 Nature seems to have scattered them over the world as a medi- 

 cine to the mind, to give cheerfulness to the earth and furnish 

 agreeable sensations to its inhabitants. The savage of the forest, 

 in the joy of his heart, binds his brow with the native flowers of 

 his woods, while their cultivation increases in every country in 

 proportion as the blessings of civilisation extend. From the 

 most humble cottage garden to the proudest parterre of the 

 palace, nothing more conspicuously bespeaks the good taste of 

 the possessor than a well cultivated flower garden ; and it may 

 generally be remarked, that when we see a neat cottage court 

 well stocked with plants, the inhabitant is respectable and pos- 

 sesses domestic comforts; whilst, on the contrary, a neglected 

 garden but too frequently marks the indolence and bespeaks the 

 unhappy state of the owner. 



Every rank of people seems equally to enjoy flowers as a grati- 

 fication to the organs of sight and s-mell ; but to the botanist and 

 the close observer of nature, beauties are unfolded and displayed 

 that cannot be conceived by the careless attention of the multi- 

 tude, who regard these ornaments of nature as wild and savage 

 persons would a watch ; they are dazzled with the splendor of 

 the case and the beauty of the appendages, but look no further, 

 because they know not where to look. The artist, while he en- 

 joys the external covering, looks into the interior, and as he 

 regards the movements and learns their various uses, he is struck 

 with admiration at the ingenuity of the mechanism. The bota- 

 nist has the same delight when he looks into the blossoms of 

 flowers, for he there beholds the wonderful works of the A1- 



