The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-06-18

the greatest retreshment to the spirits Of NAM"
one Of the few pleasures which leave neither
sting nor cloy, and serve both to refine the
taste and foster the religious instincts Of man;
a pleasure which happily combines the gratid-
cstion of the physical senses with the culture
Of the moral nature; pleasure calm, subdued,
yet absorbing; neither tending to grossness on
tie one hand, nor to idle dreaminess on the
other, but requiring just such bodily activity
as health demands and just enough contem-
plativeness to lead to composure of mind and
love Of religion. 1t is not the least of the tri-
umphs of the age we live in that the vocation
in whose gift such treasures lie should have
been raised to the dignity Of science in our
days. Botony existed, no doubt, as long ago as
Pliny; but we should profane the name Of
science were we to apply it to the rude ele-
mentary notions of the vegetable and floral
kingdoms, which were entertained before the
nineteenth century. Rousseau and others who
wrote on the subject had little save hearty
love and admiration for " this bounteous, beau
teous earth" Linnaus knew but some 5000
species Of plants; even Bory de Saint Vincent
writing in 1929, has qualms Of conscience at emu
merating the number of known plants at 10000.
and apologies to the reader for hazarding the
hope that some day the earth may be found to
contain as many as fifty thousand different We
getable families. Three years ago, q single
garden in England contained one hundred and
fifty thousand different plants, properly CLASH
fed, arranged and christened. New methods Of
deluding exotics into contentment in exile new
processes OF stimulating the fecundity Of mother
earth, new contrivances for tending and curing
diseased plants, are now discovered daily. Nor
is the progress Of botany confined to Europe.
Many countrymen of ours-men Of enlightened
mind and ample fortune-have devoted a con-
siderable share of their time and means to its
culture. With it's usual parsimony, the State
leaves them to grapple, unaided, with the task.
All the success obtained is due to individual
efforts.
What those efforts have been, and to what
extent crowned with reward, may have been
seen at the horticultural exhibition just
closed at Metropolitan Hail. A pleasant sight
it was, indeed, to see that vast enceinte, so
seldom unoccupied by benches and human
heads, filed from the stage to the door, with
natures choicest jewelry. There were roses Of
every hue, from the blueish purple to the virgin
white-roses from Old England, roses from
France, roses from Bengal and China, and roses
Of our own native hills-all rich with the full
ness of their bloom and fragrance. There, too,
were cacti and carnations, verbenas and Or
chids. orange trees heavily laden with their
Jungle. There was tree with hard, smooth aear-
shaped leaves--a tree that we might wea IA Sin
q thick glen without further notice than brief
glance, for no rich hues or sweet scent from
it greeted our senses. But thou, visiter, who
hast yawned in piteous WEAKNESS over the in
Goodyear, ponder it we'll: had it not been for
the sap Of that tree, thou might'st never have
been bored with discussions on India rubber
and both Day and Goodyear might have gone to
their graves in peaceful obscurity. 1t is, in
fact, the India rubber tree. There, again, in the
like an overgrown whale, on the surface ola tank
Of water. Behold it, visiter, and bow with re-
spect before the Victoria Regia Twill soon be
seventeen years since Sir Robert Schomburgh
deserted it, for the first time, in the waters OF
the Berbric, in Demarara. "a gigantic leaf,'
says he, 'from five to six feet in diameter, sal
ver-shaped, with a broad rim Of light green
above and vivid crimson below rested upon the
water, Quite in character with this wonderful
leafwas the luxuriant flower, consisting of an
immense number of petals, passing in alternate
tints from pure white torose and pink, and mea-
surfing in some instances fifteen inches across"
Sir Robert sent it to England, where it was
planted in the royal garden at Kew. 1t would
not flower there, however; and botanists were
about to conclude that it could not reconcile
itselfto change Of scene. when Joseph Paxton,
who has since immortalized himself by the
construction Of the Crystal Palace obtained an
offset, and by artfully raising the temperature
Of his conservatory to that Of Demarara, by
burying the roots in burnt peat, and communi-
eating, by means Of wheel motion to the
water in the tank. like the current of the Ber-
brio river, had the satisfaction Of producing
several splendid specimens of the flower.
Other gardeners, by the same means, have since
obtained the same result. A Philadelphia anna
teur has been even more successful: his Vic
toIia rcgia has already given birth to nearly
leo fowers-one Of which made its appear
ance at the Metropolitan exhibition. Such
flower seems rather the product Of some an
tediluvian lake. when all natures children
were on mammoth scale, than the growth
Of one Of our puny garden tanks.
Every body loves flowers. We trust SO, at
least, from our profound regard for humanity
In all ages, flowers have been mans companion
from the cradle to the death-bed Hear one
who loved them well -
Bring flowers to crown the cup and lutte;
Bring fowers-the bride is near;
Bring iloHers to soothe the captive cell;
Bring flowers to strew the bier
No one who spends an hour at an horticultural
pyhbition Init will acknow | d 0a thot h;o oant