beauty; and, sloping down on to the plains
beneath, blush out in all their summer garniture, the wild rose and the
honeysuckle. On, through the Middle States, the lesser flowers of early
spring throw out a thousand brilliant dyes, and are surrounded by a host
of summer plants, vieing with each other in the exuberance of their
tints. On the Alleghanies, through all their vast range, grow up the
magnificent dogwood, kalmia, and rhododendron, spangling mile upon
mile of their huge sides and tops with white, and covering crags and
precipices of untold space with their blushing splendor. Further west,
on the prairies, and oak openings, and in the deep woods, too, of the
great lakes, and of the Mississippi valley, with the earliest grass,
shoot up, all over the land, a succession of flowers, which in variety
and profusion of shape, and color, and odor, outvie all the lilies of
the gardens of Solomon; and so they continue till the autumnal frosts
cut down both grass and flower alike. Further south, along the piney
coast, back through the hills and over the vast reach of cotton and
sugar lands, another class of flowers burst out from their natural
coverts in equal glory; and the magnolia, and the tulip-tree, and the
wild orange throw a perfume along the air, like the odors of Palestine.
In the deep lagoons of the southern rivers, too, float immense
water-lilies, laying their great broad leaves, and expanded white and
yellow flowers, upon the surface, which the waters of the Nile in the
days of Cleopatra never equaled. And these are nature's wild productions
only.

Flowers being cultivated, not for profit, but for show and amusement,
need not intrude upon the time which is required to the more important
labors of the farm. A little time, given at such hours when it can be
best spared, will set all the little flower-beds in order, and keep the
required shrubbery of the place in trim--and should not be denied in any
family who enjoy a taste for them. Even the simplest of their kind, when
carefully disposed, produce a fine effect; and the hardy bulbous, and
tuberous-rooted plants require but slight aid in producing the highest
perfection of their bloom; while the fibrous-rooted perennials, and the
flowering shrubs, bloom on from year to year, almost uncared for and
untouched.

The annuals require the most attention. Their seeds must be planted and
gathered every year; they must be weeded and nursed with more care than
the others