Flowers are the most beautiful creation of God. Their sight is a joy forever. They are a subject of poetry and no Natural description is complete without reference to flowers. Their beauty is sung by some of the best poets of the world.

They are of various colours and hues. Even the same species of flowers exist in several forms and tinges. They look picturesque and are a thing of beauty. One is lost in the sight of flowers and thinks of that invincible Power which has created them.

The sweet smell of flowers makes the air pleasant to breathe. The scent of flowers is extracted and preserved as perfume. People apply it on their clothes to make them sweet smelling. Water of certain flowers is sprinkled in gatherings.

Flowers are used in making sweet smelling hair oil. They are strung into garlands and with certain people it is a fashion to wear sweet smelling garlands in the evening. Flowers are offered to gods and goddesses. Some rich people spread them near about their bed at night.

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A lover offers flowers to his beloved as a token of his sweet and pure love for her. Women love to hang them in their coiffeurs to look more attractive. Some gentlemen hung them in the button-holes of their coats.

The late Pt. Nehru always hung a red rose in the button­hole of his Achkin. The bee extracts honey from flowers. Honey is a tonic and a great purifier of blood. A bridegroom garlands his bride and she also does so in return at the time of their first meeting just before the actual marriage ceremony.

We shower petals of flowers upon our revered leaders when they happen to visit our city. When a great man dies, his dead body is laden with wreaths of flowers. People shower flowers upon his bier as it is carried through the bazars and streets as a mark of their love and respect for him.

Flowers are given to the sick as their very sight, touch and smell have miraculous healing properties. When any foreign dignitary visits our country, we offer him bouquets as a sign of our good-will towards the country he represents.

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The foreigner, too, on his visit to our country places wreaths at Mahatma Gandhi’s or Pt. Nehru’s Smadhi by way of homage to the great souls of India. In short, no ceremony is complete without the use of flowers in one form or the other.

They are our companions in life as well as in death. They are a sign and symbol of love, sacrifice, regard, reverence, beauty and goodwill. Flowers adorn and enhance the beauty of our gardens, parks, temples, schools, offices, bunglows and rest houses. No human habitation is complete without flowers. Plants and trees full of variegated flowers are a sight to see. Poets are never tired of singing praises of flowers. Says Wordsworth in his famous poem, “Daffodils”-

“For oft when on my couch I lie,

In vacant or in pensive mood,

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They flash upon that inward eye,

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.”

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A man, with a heart as sensitive to beauty as that of a poet, begins to dance with joy at the sight of flowers dancing in the breeze. He never forgets the sight. When he is in a sad or pensive mood, he recalls the scene to his mind and derives from it heavenly joy and bliss that are indescribable.

Flowers satisfy our sense of touch, sense of sight and sense of smell. They are a rare gift of Nature. Some flowers are used as a diet. Flowers like the rose are used for medicinal purposes. Some flowers are health-giving and are prescribed “as a tonic by physicians.

They have many moral lessons to teach us. They teach us to live for the pleasure of others. They teach us that a small life well. Lived is far better than a long life badly-lived. A little lily that lives for a day is far better than a huge oak that lives for three hundred years and at last falls sere and lifeless. They teach us to scatter mirth and beauty wherever we go.

Arrangement of their petals and leaflets in a systematic way teaches us to lead a systematic and disciplined life. Their smiles even in thorny surroundings bring home to us the art of living. The sweet fragrance which they impart to everybody irrespective of caste and creed teaches broad-mindedness and persuades us to break the narrow domestic walls. The resistance to strong gales and the hot sun urges us to have courage and not to lose heart even in the days of adversity.