PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
5 
flowers, there is nothing that can in the least degree excite the 
merely animal appetites or passions, or stir up enmity or mischief 
against other men ; and, therefore, floriculture is a direct means 
of virtue, by preventing or weakening its opposite in the very 
first formation of the desire. 
We are not now speaking of those with whom the culture of 
flowers is a profession, or of the opulent, who, though they 
admire flowers, employ others to do the labour of the cultivation. 
We are speaking only of those who cultivate flowers on account 
of the pleasure which they take in so doing, and who thus substitute 
floriculture for the less simple and innocent occupations of the 
leisure hour in which they who do not resort to some such 
natural amusement as this are but too prone to indulge, and to 
the indulgence of which they are often drawn, and induced to 
continue in it, by. the example and enticement of others. Now, 
apart from the direct pleasure that the cultivator derives from 
watching the progress and perfection of his flowers, as the result 
of his own skill and handiwork directing and seconding the 
powers of nature, their cultivation enables the man to live, for 
the time at least, happy in his own society, which is one of the 
best foundations both of contentment and of virtue ; for there 
has been many a man, who, to escape the ennui of his own com¬ 
pany, has sought the company of others, and by this means, in 
the end, materially injured, or even altogether ruined, both his 
fortunes and his happiness, and entailed the severest afflictions 
upon those dependent upon him. 
If to those classes of the community to whom we allude, 
floriculture had no other beneficial effect than this, it would still 
have ample recommendations in the estimation of every well- 
wisher of mankind ; but it has many others, though we shall 
content ourselves by mentioning only one of them. Among all 
the good habits of mankind, there is probably not one more 
valuable than the habit of regularity, in timing what we have to 
do to those seasons at which it can be most advantageously done ; 
and as every flower, that is, every flowering-plant, has its 
seasons at which it requires attention, in order to bring it to 
. maturity at its appointed period, and even to preserve its healthy 
and pleasant appearance at all times, it teaches habits of attention 
in all other matters. So effectually, indeed, do a regular attention 
< to flowers and plants of every description, and the reverse of 
