FIRST ANNUAL BANQUET. 151 



practical connection, by telling us something about the 

 Betulaalhay coramoaly called, I believe, the white birch. 



DR. SMITH. 



Mr. Chairman^ and Gentlemen: A happy accident has 

 put me in position to accept your very kind and court- 

 eous invitation to be present this evening, and I have enjoy- 

 ed these exercises more than I can tell ; because I have not 

 only been entertained but greatly instructed by the ad- 

 dresses and remarks that have been made in connection with 

 the various toasts that have been proposed to-night. I 

 confess, however, that my pleasure in hearing the last ad- 

 dress or two has been diminished or disturbed more or less 

 by the fact that I have been notified by the President that I 

 was to be called upon to say something myself on this oc- 

 casion, and I have been casting around in ray mind to find 

 some point of connection — how I, not specifically a botanist, 

 but only a pedagogue, might get correlated with the situa- 

 tion, as it were, in this learned company. I have been help- 

 ed in this search for a nexus by the statement which your 

 President made when he said that it was a part of the pur- 

 pose of the founder of this institution to promote arboricult- 

 ure. I was further relieved when Doctor Trelease said that 

 it was the purpose to make the investigations at the Garden 

 practically useful, and now I am prepared to stand before 

 you as a teacher and as representing teachers with a worthy 

 subject, the merits of Betula alba^ and to ask very earnest- 

 ly that my friend Dr. Trelease shall not neglect this teacher's 

 friend, the old-time birch. I desire also to impress upon 

 my friend, the Governor, and I am very glad that I have 

 the opportunity of addressing this directly and personally to 

 him, that much more of gratitude is due to Betula alba from 

 our statesmen than has ordinarily been given to her. I 

 stand in defense of her claim that upon her rest the founda- 

 tions of the State. For, sir, it will be admitted that our re- 

 publican institutions rest upon our schools ; who will deny 

 that? That the maintenance of our schools rests upon the 



