FLOWERS.


"Who does not love a flower
Its hues are taken from the light
Which summer's suns fling, pure and bright,
In scatter'd and prismatic hues,
That smile and shine in drooping dews;
Its fragrance from the sweetest air--
Its form from all that's light and fair--
Who does not love a flower?"


In the two great floral kingdoms of nature, the botanical and the human,
if we must yield the palm to that which is alike transcendent in the
beauty of form and motion, and in the higher attributes of intelligence,
innocence, and rural perfection, yet it can be no derogation to admire,
with a rapture bordering upon enthusiasm, the splendid products of the
garden; and especially when their beauties are combined and arranged
with an exquisite and refined taste. What is the heart made of which can
find no sentiment in flowers! In the dahlia, for example, we see what
can be done by human skill and art, in educating and training a simple
and despised plant, scarcely thought worthy of cultivation, to the
highest rank of gayety and glory in the aristocracy of flowers. We may
learn, from such success, a lesson of encouragement, in the education
and training of flowers, of an infinitely higher value and perfection.