494 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
and flowers has only of late years received much attention. With¬ 
in the last fifteen or twenty years much interest in floriculture has 
been shown by the masses of the people. Early in this period 
there was a preceptible awakening which has increased until the 
present time, and now we find almost everybody devoting more or 
less attention to their culture. 
As I go back to the home of my childhood, among the moun¬ 
tains of Vermont, I remember but one home where there was any 
real pretension made to flower-culture, and what a bright, sunny 
spot is that in my child-life. It was the home of an old couple 
who had not much money ’tis true; they lived in a rickety old 
house, inelegant and uncomfortable in many ways, and they lacked 
a hundred little things necessary for their comfort and ease that 
many other homes possessed, yet they were contented and happy. 
In their only sunny window there was a trailing, coarse, rampant 
growth of petunias—the white and dull purplish red—old familiars 
of thirty years ago, from which the rose, lavender, violet, blotched 
and striped of to-day have sprung. Over their doors, vines were 
growing. In their little garden-patch, all the old-fashioned garden 
favorites were opening their blossoms to the sky. While memory 
serves to furnish pictures I shall not forget this one. They were 
as ignorant of botany as they were of any other science. But 
what cared I, that the old lady called her Lilacs “ Lalocks,” her 
Peon3 7 s “Pineys,” and her Asters “China Oysters?” “A rose by 
any other name would smell as sweet.” 
The popular study of botany now means more than the learning 
of the Latin names of plants and the parts of plants, and the be¬ 
coming familiar with ihe mythical sentiment and poetry of flowers. 
I think our greatest need, at present, is a more general dissemina¬ 
tion of practical, useful knowledge of plants and flowers, and their 
culture, adapted to the wants of inexperienced amateurs. 
Should I undertake to give you a list of those most suitable for 
common window-gardening for those who are not blessed with the 
luxury of a green-house, it would be a mere re-hash of the catalo¬ 
gues. Yet many catalogues go through with a list of green-house 
or window plants which are really no more fit for window-culture 
than the hickory tree or sunflower. The most careful beginner 
will make many mistakes, but in this, he will find no cause for dis¬ 
couragement. The most skilled has always something to learn. 
