THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
3 
merits that protect the precious rudiments from wet 
and cold. By degrees the spires grow taller; presently 
they burst at the tips, and eventually the foliage and 
yellow vases peep above the ground. The bees are glad 
when they arrive, and visit them alternately with the 
palm-bloom in the hedges, returning from their happy 
labor all besprinkled with the yellow pollen. If a few 
crocus bulbs be placed in a tea-saucer, with a little 
cotton-wool as a foundation, and the saucer be kept 
constantly supplied with water so that the wool be per¬ 
fectly saturated with it, the spires will open just the 
same as if in the earth, and make even the gloomiest of 
back sitting-rooms cheerfnl at the dreariest season of 
the year, opening their gay carollas one after the other. 
To watch them grow day by day, is alone a cheerful 
sight. The more we can keep ourselves face to face 
with the simple and pretty little tilings of nature, bring¬ 
ing them into our parlors, nursing them upon our 
mantlepieces, making them companions of our solitude, 
the more truly do we learn to love what is grand and 
noble in the outer world. Improving ideas are not got 
only, nor perhaps so much, from the contemplation of 
waterfalls, mighty mountains, and extended prospects, 
as from the day-by-day quiet observation of the won¬ 
derful ways of God in the calling forth of a little flower 
from its nest, and painting it with miraculous hues that 
seem impossible to proceed from dull, cold soil. The 
glory of God is to bring order out of confusion, peace 
out of discord, life out of death ; and nowhere in nature 
do we see it more beautifully expressed than in the 
birth of the silver-mantled flower, a birth that comes 
not through any aid or encouragement from man, but 
apparently of its own free action. 
What the Crocus during winter is to the earth, the 
flower-buds of many trees are upon the boughs. These 
very trees, which to thy eye are least provided with 
flowery charms, and which never aspire, even in the 
height of their life, to be more than what neutral tints 
are to the artist; these very trees are in Winter so rich 
in wonder as to take rank with the most alluring forms 
of nature. The common hazel-nut in mid-winter is hung 
with innumerable gray-green clusters; the alder and 
willow-buds swell with leafy effort; the latter often 
burst before Christmas, and disclose their silky contents. 
Everywhere there is the note of preparation, and though 
the cold days and colder nights may chill their- sap, the 
movement is still upwards ; Spring is the desire, Spring 
is the promised land ; and though the fireside may 
prove more inviting than the woodland, and incurious¬ 
ness may leave them all unobserved, no matter; every 
tree moves its steady way, seeking outlets at a thousand 
points; and by-and-by, when a tempting afternoon car¬ 
ries our footsteps across the meadows, we look around 
in congratulation that Spring is beginning ; whereas, in 
truth, it is we who are just beginning to observe. This 
is Winter in connection with plant-life, if we will only 
go forth and learn, a time of grand assurance to us that 
nothing ever absolutely ceases. The particular organs 
constructed for the performance of given functions may 
collapse and go to decay, but the life which acts through 
them never ceases for one instant. Sleep in the animal, 
leaflessness in the plant and tree, indicate only that 
nature is gathering up her strength for new movements; 
that which seems cessation is the transit from a weaker 
to a more powerful state. Winter, in fact, is the neces¬ 
sity of all beginning, as Summer is the necessity of all 
ripeness and perfection.” 
THE HIGH PRICE OF FLOWERS. 
It is not, as is generally supposed, owing to supply 
and demand that the price of flowers is extravagant; 
and yet, to a certain extent, such is the case. In New 
York, and to some extent in other cities, the high price 
is what makes the demand. Society will permit 
the wearing of such flowers only in her ranks as are 
beyond the reach of the common people. Lilacs in win¬ 
ter are admitted into first-class society, as at that time 
they can only be produced at great cost, and sell at a 
dollar per spray, at the florist’s, on perfect equality with 
the Rose , which does not mean the ordinary Tea Roses, 
but those aristocratic Roses, such as Jacqueminot, Baron¬ 
ess de Rothschild and others of that class, Roses that can 
only be produced in limited quantities, and, consequently 
at a high price. These Roses if ten, in fact commonly, 
sell at retail at from eighteen to twenty-four dollars per 
dozen, and have sold as high as five dollars each, and 
that at the same time the Safrano and Bon Silene 
Roses are selling at five cents each. It is a mistake to 
suppose the relative beauty of each regulates the price, 
and a far greater mistake to suppose that flowers are 
worn because they are beautiful; at the same time they 
would not bo worn if they were not. Flowers, like other 
ornamentations, are valued in proportion to their cost, 
and not for their real beauty. When Lilacs and Roses 
sell at two dollars each, they will become conspicuous 
objects in given fashionable localities, but' when each 
sell on the street at five cents each, not one of either 
will be found on the persons of the elite. With a large 
proportion of flower buyers or wearers, what a flower 
is, is a matter of but little interest, but what it cost 
is what makes it appropriate and beautiful; no mat¬ 
ter whether it be a Sunflower or wild Carrot, if it 
can only be obtained by the few, its price will, be enor¬ 
mous, and its owner as happy as was he who had Daisies 
for his Daisy, when all other Daisies had none. 
Another reason for the high price of flowers is, that 
society will not permit of presents from a gentleman to 
a lady, when they are simply friends, other than candies 
and flowers, the result of which is that there is a friendly . 
rivalry among young men to see which can give the 
most beautiful bouquet to their friends, and as they have 
no means of knowing what constitutes a beautiful 
flower other than its cost, the florist makes prices for 
bouquets that makes the gift as expensive, if not as 
valuable, as though the present were a diamond. 
For all the more common flowers, such as are used in 
floral designs, table and parlor decorations, the price is, 
like that of all other articles of merchandise, regulated 
by supply and demand. Of such flowers we rarely, it 
