Year: 1865

What sage said of one of their number
may be said of all Flowers: "They are their
own excuse for being" Where Flowers are
there Beauty is and neither need apology.


Flowers are the stars Of the soil just as stars
are the Flowers of the sky; and the holy .ra-
dance of those that shed their mild and love
ly light upon the Earth is not more beautiful
than the fragrant radiance of those that shed
their sweet and delicate odors on the over
arehing Heaven


Both have a language Of their own, and both
alike teach tender truths that make men wiser
and better, and leave an influence in their
hearts and on their lives, which, if rightly
seen, serves higher purposes than books; for
these, however great, must reach the spirit
through the intellect, while those appeal di-
rectly to the soul and reach the Reason, hav-
ing first made the Imagination captive.


See yonder June-born Rose that mods a
smiling thankfulness unto the passing zephyr
that kisses the morning dew from off its blush
ing lips and then unfolds its dainty petals to
the sun, as lover parts the folded leaves of his
heart-history to the glad eyes of the beloved.


What emblem could Love have more beau
tiful than that? How it bushes beneath the
broad gaze of garish Day, and clings more
tenderly then ever to the stem On which it
must depend When night comes, drinking
dew frcm the atmosphere, it gains new life
and finds a iiesher color, and thus displays
the very thoughts that Love suggests, wheth-
CT it be laughing in the sunshine Of Prosperity,
or weeping in the Mcmphian gloom Of Adver-
sity's midnight


Tho golden tongue Of that Lily tells of the
purity so many wish to find and so few live to
see either in themselves or others. Blessed
be thy death as thy BIRTH beautiful one! and
may the whte-winged angels of whose chasti-
ty thou art the emblem, protect each leaf from
any stain which would compel thee to remem-
Der thy short but unhappy Earthlife.


Modesty blooms under that hedge in lit
tie simple flower whose blue and delicate pc
tails rival the sky that ovcrhangs the Arno,-
That broad leaf protects it from the gaze Of
mortals, and, like that quality of which it is
the emblem, itpasses away as it came, unheed,
ed and unknown, save by the more than fortu-
nate few whom Fate selected for its friends.


Generous Flowers Asking no reward, ye
bestow your fragrant gifts on all, and load the
air from which We live with benefits for which
ye ask no thanks. Our gratitude is thine; for
as we gaze our spirit gains new strength and
learns the lore of an immortal Hope which
may, per chance, be withered by the breath OF
Hate, but which must bloom again, after the
Winter of life is over and the soul enters up
on another year through the opening portals
of Spring, which soon or late must come tc
ALL


Many who seek Woodbine find Thistles in
their stead; and thus the fateful hours bring
disappointments where most of happiness was
deemed to bloom. They too fade; those bios
SONS of the heart bear their own fruit; but
who shall say it is not better thus. The bitter
in the bud may blossom sweet and the happy
heart-howers whose loss we weep to-day, may
ripen into joys beneath the genial warmth o.
coming loves


Flowers! We thought to pluck thee: now
we stay in pity our tooruthess hand We viii
not spill the blood that throbs in those swee
veins nor yet disturb the current of thy dainty
life Die we know thou wilt, but without pair
,, from u.s. We drink thy fragrance from thu
loaded air, and kiss thy humid life in ecstacy
and revel in the present pleasures ye can give
To you tomorrow will not come, to us it ma.
not; but we enjoy the Now and trust the Flu
ture for the joys of Then.