National and Educational Interests. 



8 3 



subject that it is impossible, at the present time, to select a 

 flower with any probability that it will be accepted by the people 

 of the United States with any degree of unanimity. It is 

 better, in the judgment of the committee, to leave the matter 

 open for discussion." 



Numbers of plants have been pressed for public favor. The 

 conspicuous ones are golden rod, Indian corn, apple, moun- 

 tain laurel (Kalniid), Mayflower (Ej>igcea), water lily, magnolia, 

 aster. The features which a national flower should comprise 

 are admirably stated in The American Garden for September 

 by George W. W. Houghton, in support of the apple blossom : 



z. Preferably it should be the flower of a native plant, though not neces- 

 sarily, for our population is the result of transplanting, and an imported 

 flower, providing it has been thoroughly Americanized, would have a cer- 

 tain appropriateness. 



2. It should be generally distributed throughout the country, so that citi- 

 zens of every state might feel that they had a part in it ; and it must be 

 common and familiar to all. 



3. It should preferably suggest utility as well as beauty, in order to cor- 

 rectly characterize the prevailing spirit of our age, and of our country in 

 particular. 



4. It should be as little variable as possible inform and color, so that 

 either will be suggestive. 



5. It should neither be so large that it cannot be worn in the button-hole 

 or in a lady's bonnet, nor so small that its form is unfamiliar. On the lat- 

 ter score I would rule out all composite flowers. 



6. Its form should be distinct and characteristic, so that it may readily 

 be recognized when used for decorative purposes, without the necessity of 

 color, and even when simplified to the merest outline. 



7. It should have some sentiment about it ; and, to fulfill this condition, 

 it is highly desirable that it should have an agreeable odor. Without this 

 attribute of sentiment it is impossible that it should take any hold on the 

 public. 



5. Missouri Botanic Gardens. 



America has at last the opportunity to possess a great bo- 

 tanic garden. The magnificent fortune of the late Henry 

 Shaw of St. Louis has been left to the maintenance and 

 augmentation of the gardens which he established many years 

 ago. Provisions of the broadest and most liberal nature have 

 been made, and the trustees are men of sound business worth 

 and are fully aware of the responsibility which falls upon them. 

 The fortune which falls to the support of this garden " has 

 been appraised," writes Garden andEorest, "at nearly $3, 000,- 



