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9 
4 
Flowers and their Cultivation. 
BY MISS LOUISA KRE1TLER. 
[Al Essay read before the Trumbull Coun¬ 
ty, Ohio, Horticultural Society at the May 
meeting, 1883.] 
Flowers, the cultivation of which every 
family understands more or less perfectly, 
should have a place in the dooryard of 
every home, and have a right to claim the 
attention of at least one member of the fam¬ 
ily. The reason why the cultivation of 
flowers should be encouraged, must be ob¬ 
vious to all. Flowers exert a moral influ¬ 
ence over the beholder, and, as has been 
truthfully said by Solon Robinson, “We 
are just as well satisfied of the beneficial 
moral effect of flower cultivation as we are 
that the effect of their beauty upon the 
sense of nearly all beholders is pleasing. 
CROCUS VERNUS. 
A love of flowers is a love of the beautiful, 
and a love of the beautiful is a love of the 
good.” This is a truth that no one will deny, 
or even attempt to deny. What a child 
sees, loves, and is taught to appreciate in 
its early years, makes the most lasting im¬ 
pression, and truly no child having ful 
possession of its faculties has ever failed to 
exhibit a fondness or natural appreciation 
of flowers, one of the most pleasing pro¬ 
ductions of Nature. And, as has already 
been said. ‘ ‘A love of flowers is a love of the 
beautiful, and a love of the beautiful is a 
love of the good ” This being the case, 
flowers play an important part in our lives, 
inasmuch as they exert an influence that is 
beneficial to the development of character. 
Flowers are looked upon and regarded as 
emblems of innocence and purity, and their 
lowers of fascination are not lost, even 
upon the savage and barbarian. In ancient 
Athens, as well as in aboriginal Mexico— 
die one the most refined of cities, the other 
a scarcely more than barbarous town—there 
were famous flower markets. Even among 
HESPERIS MARATIMA. 
the rudest savages the love of flowers is not 
unknown. India,' Japan, and especially 
China, have done much for the develop¬ 
ment of garden flowers, which are almost 
as much the product of art as of Nature. 
But, though often monstrosities to the^eye 
of a botanist, hardly any objects in the 
world are more beautiful or more replete 
with fine aesthetic and moral influence than 
garden flowers. 
CALCEOLARIA. 
Even the American Indian—more rude 
and savage than some of the wild beasts of 
the forest—experienced joy and delight as 
