11 
true, none of the artificial distinctions of science ;— 
but what superfluous production of this or that organ, 
what operation of art by the curious effects of culti- 
vation, can exceed the simple beauty of a permanent 
species. What skill has imitated or excelled the 
vivid glory of the *Cardinal Flower, mocking the 
dyes of the painter? what perfection superadded to 
the twhite water-lily of unrivalled purity, floating 
amidst its broad protecting shield-like leaves? Does 
that little harbinger of our lingering northern springs, 
tthe pale liverwort, which dares to tell us of the 
coming sunny days, appear more interesting to the 
cultivated and refined eye, because art has succeed- 
ed in producing a few more petals, by the destruc- 
tion of its tiny filaments, which otherwise contrast so 
delicately with them? ‘The almost endless varieties 
which have sprung into existence, in the floral de- 
partment, it has been asserted, has given alarm to 
system-makers and scientific men. Whether this be 
so or not, the too prevailing taste for variety is the 
more to be lamented than deprecated ; and it becomes 
the endeavors of every learned and enterprising So- 
ciety, founded for the encouragement and pursuit of 
horticultural skill, and a taste for gardening, to form 
a new standard of merit or value for the subjects of 
its pursuits. Did Fashion, that mighty potentate 
over human society, sanction the taste for the pure 
simplicity of Nature, and were plants admired for. 
their intrinsic value rather than as artificial produc- 
tions, there would be as much satisfaction, not to say 
more intellectual improvement, in that taste which 
* Lobelia Cardinalis. t Nymphea Odorata. { Hepatica triloba. 
