(XVI) 
Passing by—yet with grateful sense—their more obviously practical appli¬ 
cations, as in furnishing substantial vegetarian diet—not forgetting the nutri¬ 
tious beverages they supply; their ready serviceableness for medical purposes; 
and, as with the “essential” flowers and deodorizing plants, their acceptable con¬ 
tributions to enjoyment and healthful comfort, by way of distilled perfumes and 
evaporating odors; scan the hundred and one loving economies of man’s clever 
and tasty handicraft, as he culls and arranges those beauteous boons of lavish 
Nature. Collecting them from a world of beauty all their own, where erstwhile 
they brightly glowed and sweetly breathed—in garden plot or spacious park, on 
hill or dale—he prizingly places them in dainty vessels, as jewels in caskets, or 
skillfully fashions them into novel scenes of loveliness, their freshness long un¬ 
dimmed and their fragrance long preserved. 
What with those wreaths, and crowns, and garlands, and palms, and 
rosettes, for rank or victory—for chosen May-day queen!—or for graceful column 
and triumphal arch; those leafy festoons intertwined with light-green flag and 
beaming with floral eyes, suspended to fagade, on walls within and without, for 
religious or civic celebrations; those flowers in vase or corbeille that enliven 
homes and, with due discretion, the sick-chamber, or the prison-cell, scent festive 
banquet-boards, refresh, as well as adorn, assembly-halls, and form expressive 
votive offerings laid upon God’s Altars in God’s terrestrial House, or tributes of 
veneration and affection at the shrines of her who is the “Mystical Pose,” the 
“Lily among thorns,” to wLom the “Month of Flowers” is devoutly consecrate ;— 
what, again, with those with harmoniously assorted bouquets which deck fair 
hands with gems more sparkling than ring or bracelet; those boutonnieres ap¬ 
pended to coat lapels, as dear reminders, perhaps, of friends temporarily parted; 
one must certainly conclude, from all such flower devices, that flowers were de¬ 
signed for man, to aid in pursuing several of his life-purposes. And still more: 
interlaced Holly leaves or boughs are fitly chosen for religious festivities and 
family rejoicings; the divers fruit-Blossoms are adopted to encourage and glad¬ 
den in their own respective ways, by the suggestiveness of each kind; Orange 
Blossoms, in particular, with associate flowers, are introduced at weddings—from 
Spanish story and by later custom, to connote earth’s bridal joys, as also the 
happy “Nuptials of the Lamb” who will lead His spouse both here and hereafter. 
Then, on the one side; look upon those sure indications of homely comfort 
and refinement, the open house-gardens or prudently hedged closes, where, by 
their embellishing the surroundings, you will be delighted to view the tidily kept 
bushes properly distributed around, and favorite flowers, characteristic, perhaps, 
