ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
6 
THE USE OF FLOWERS. 
G OD might have bade the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, 
The oak tree and the cedar tree, 
Without a flower at all. 
He might have made enough, enough. 
For every want of ours; 
For luxury, medicine and toil 
And yet have made no flowers. 
The ore within the mountain mine, 
Requireth none to grow, 
Nor doth it need the lotus flower 
To make the river flow. 
The clouds might give abundant rain, 
The nightly dews might fall, 
And the herb that keepeth life in man 
Might yet have drunk them all. 
Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 
All dyed with rainbow light; 
All fashioned with suprernest grace, 
_ Upspringing day and night. 
Springing in valleys green and low, 
And on the mountains high, 
And in the silent wilderness, 
Where no man passes by? 
Our outward life requires them not — 
Then wherefore had they birth ? 
To minister delight to man 
To beautify the earth. 
To comfort man — to whisper hope, 
Whene’er his faith is dim ; 
For whoso careth for the flowers, 
Will much more care for him ! 
Mary Howitt. 
Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, 
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars. 
Dream and so dream all night without a stir. 
Keats — Hyperion. Bk. I, line 73. 
