THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
317 
flowers so beautiful as those we are going to have. In 
spring the flower garden begins to assert its importance, 
and our real interest commences. The summer comes 
with its profusion of bloom, and autumn follows, richly 
loaded with vegetables and fruits. Now these are gone, 
save a few sorrowful remembrances, and we can profit by 
the lessons we have learned. While each season is laden 
with the pleasures we find in its vegetables, flowers and 
fruits, it also furnishes an abundant weed crop. Weeds 
are to be found almost everywhere and in every condition 
of life, and wherever found they are regarded as a nui¬ 
sance. Vegetables, fruits and flowers are the legitimate 
products of the garden, and they may always be had in 
abundance if weeds are not allowed to grow. 
But the garden is not the only place where weeds are 
found—in fact, there they are only results. If roses are 
first in the heart before they can be seen in the garden, 
so, too, will weeds first appear. A weedy garden is any¬ 
thing but an object of beauty, but it is not half so de¬ 
spicable as a weedy head and a weedy heart, its legiti¬ 
mate parents. Intelligent, clean heads and pure hearts 
are the results of careful cultivation, and the garden to 
be beautiful and clean will require the same care and at¬ 
tention. Chemically there is no difference between brains 
and beans, and the law of development is the same for 
the two. A good crop of either is the result of well di¬ 
rected industry, and without which both crops get weedy. 
Men with weedy heads are very common and readily dis¬ 
tinguished ; they are chronic, silly grumblers, never satis¬ 
fied with anything; they never recognize the blessings 
that are constantly showered upon them, but are always 
in search of those they know not of. They see nothing- 
in the soil upon which they tread but dirt, and a place 
where plants will grow, while the rock is only an impedi¬ 
ment to the plough. They see nothing in the flower ex¬ 
cepting color and fragrance, and when these are gone 
there have been no lessons learned. To them the sum¬ 
mer’s sun brings only perspiration, and a cloudy sky 
gloom, while the rain has no other mission than to soil 
their clothing and bring general discomfort; dust and 
destruction accompany a drought, and the winter’s snow, 
which is always heavily laden with blessings, has only 
coughs and colds for them, and extreme cold is the extent 
of miseries. Insects, winged and creeping, the common 
enemies of mankind, are doubly so to the man of weeds. 
How strange this seems when they are as necessary to 
our own existence as the air we breathe. 
This is the season that delights the weedy man, for he 
can now put on artificial mourning for the loss of the 
plants he cared not for, and only cultivated to keep up an 
appearance of taste and refinement. But we must not 
think strange of this peculiarity ; it permeates every phase 
of life. The weedy man always reserves his kind words 
for the dead, when they would have been of much greater 
value had they been given to the living. So, when we 
see the neglected garden mourned over after the frosts 
have blackened and destroyed, we cannot but trace the 
analogy between our gardens and our friends. 
It may seem out of place to refer to these kinds of 
gardens and gardeners in connection with the beautiful. 
We only do it in way of contrast with the clean, well- 
ordered gardens to which we now wish to call your atten¬ 
tion, although they usually speak for themselves, leaving 
for us only to narrate the lessons they teach and the 
pleasures they afford. There is much in the garden in 
autumn that is truly beautiful, if rightly understood—in 
fact, more than at any other season of the year ; but we 
must not look at it as a farmer would look into a well- 
filled granary or cellar, which shows the consummation 
of a season's industry and its probable value in the 
market. We must view it with the imagination—the 
soul—-which sees farther and more clearly than the eye. 
’Tis true there are no flowers, excepting the gentians and 
the chrysanthemums, which nature has kindly sent to 
decorate the tombs of the fallen leaflets, and those 
tender forms that cannot endure the rigors of their 
adopted homes. The chrysanthemum is an admirable 
flower to be used on such occasions ; its fitness is one 
of the harmonies of nature ; it doesn’t put on black, 
but has colors, mostly seifs, perfectly appropriate for 
the season, fit associate for autumn leaves, those varied 
forms that are so perfect in their lives as to become the 
most beautiful in old age and death. 
Many plants have their springtime in autumn. Al¬ 
ready there are thousands of buds and flowers, in field 
and garden, quietly tucked away in their tiny homes, 
loaded with fragrance and most richly adorned, ready to 
awaken into full life when our spring bids them come. 
The crocus has its flowers fully formed and perfectly 
colored now ; November is its spring, but it will patiently 
await ours, sweetly resting in the bosom of its mother 
earth. What the crocus during winter is in the earth, 
the flower-buds of many trees are upon the boughs, some 
of which cannot even await the coming of spring, but 
open on sunny days in midwinter. The branches of the 
common hazel-nut soon will be, if not already, hung with 
innumerable gray-green clusters, as will be the alder and 
willow-buds with leafy effort; the latter often burst 
and disclose their silky contents before Christmas. We 
should not wait until spring or summer to see the flowers 
of our trees, shrubs or plants. Then their colors will be 
so attractive that we can only see them with our eyes ; 
we should behold them now, when their full beauty is 
reflected upon the imagination, and through the imagina¬ 
tion to the understanding. 
It is, therefore, proper to make all our arrangements 
for the future while the objects of our love and admiration 
are at rest. There is but little now to interfere with our 
plans, which should be so laid and their execution at the 
proper time so perfect, that we may be seen in our gar¬ 
dens as well as to have our gardens seen by us. Our 
thoughts, tastes and feelings should be represented by the 
plants we select and the manner in which they are cul¬ 
tivated, and let it be remembered that others will, in a 
great measure, see in us what they see in our gardens. If 
briars and burdocks usurp the place of the rose and the 
violet, the verdict will be, “ there lives a man with bur¬ 
docks in his soul.” Let us, therefore, make such arrange¬ 
ments in our grounds and such selections of plants as 
will ennoble and beautify our characters when the garden 
reveals the treasures with which we have intrusted it. 
And in this work we need not depend altogether upon 
