waters, whose leaf falleth not—flourishing as palm-tree and cedar, growing as 
the lily to bloom evermore—fruitful as the vines of Engaddi; and the regenerated 
multitude of souls will be pictured as the wilderness blossoming as the rose; while 
poem and prose-poem will take flower, and tree, and other plant, as fitting type 
of highest excellence, as striking simile of progressive life, as pointed moral of 
increasing worth:—the “white investments” of pearly flowerets will “figure inno¬ 
cence” in childhood, the bloom of youth and the flower of manhood will be feel¬ 
ingly contrasted with the “sere and yellow leaf” of declining age, and the means 
of escape from peril, of success in spite of difficulties, will be, “out of this nettle, 
Danger, we pluck this flower, Safety!”—Yes, choicest selections from the Muses’ 
repertory might be rightly styled, Idyls of the Flowers. 
In fact, there is more than a literal and vocal resemblance between posy 
and poesy, and hence, saints that were poets, and poets that were not saints, have 
alike lovingly —con amove —drawn from the floral kingdom brightest and most 
instructive teachings. Witness, among the former, St. Francis of Assisi and St. 
Francis de Sales;—to name from among the latter would be the full roll-call of 
the sw r eetest singers in Literature. For most truly do poetry and the flowery 
realm complement and supplement, the one the other; this, by inspiring—prompt¬ 
ing to fresh strivings; that, by discovering and disclosing new, half-hidden 
beauties and relations all unsuspected by ordinary observers. 
Thus, science and the arts, literary art and Religion itself, have always 
ambitiously worked together, in laudable emulation, for the development and 
recommendation of Botanical studies and researches; and were satisfactory 
explanation demanded for all this deep-seated interest, this wide-spread enthu¬ 
siasm, this phenomenal fascination, so unmistakably evinced for all plants and 
most notably, for Flowers, it would undoubtedly be found, first of all, in man’s 
sense of beauty; and then, in the endless Variety of flower and plant, with the 
enchantment of their scenic effects; in their complex Construction, with the 
marvelous means for their propagation; in their improvability, availability, their 
important Uses; and in the valuable moral Lessons which they suggest. 
II. 
Most of us have but a rather vague notion of the limitless extent and 
manifold variedness of ISTature’s floral and kindred contributions; we know com¬ 
paratively very few of their names, even. And yet, of all the studies that inquire 
into the inexhaustible riches of the natural world, Botany reveals to us, in most 
