442 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which the Creator has adorned the earth, are beautifully shown 

 by an incident in the life of the renowned author of " Cosmos." 

 He informs us that " the sight of a colossal dragon tree and a fan 

 palm in an old tower of the botanic garden at Berlin, implanted in 

 his mind the seeds of an irresistible desire to undertake distant 

 travels." The volumes containing the results of his journeys in 

 Europe, Asia and America, are justly regarded as among the most 

 learned and philosopical treatises which the world has ever seen. 

 They have been translated into all the principal languages of 

 civilized nations, and must in ages to come be a perennial source 

 of instruction and pleasure to every scientific lover of Nature. 

 Who can say that some American youth might not be inspired by 

 the scenes in a Massachusetts garden to enter, like Alexander 

 von Humboldt, upon a glorious career of usefulness ? 



In conclusion, permit me to mention a circumstance in my own 

 personal history in further illustration of the most important prin- 

 ciple that all faithful and worthy study of pure science, without 

 regard to its immediate application in the arts, will inevitably 

 result sooner or later in some substantial good. More than 

 twenty years ago I went to Eupope to qualify myself to become a 

 practical geologist, and spending a few weeks in London, I visited 

 the Kew Gardens. Here I beheld, with wonder and delight, the 

 first specimen ever cultivated of the Victoria regia, the grandest 

 plant in both leaf and blossom ever seen in the temperate zone. 

 In this imposing presence the resolution was formed to create, if 

 possible, a botanic garden in the United States, and reproduce 

 there this superb water-lily. The consequence was that my plan 

 of operations was changed, so that instead of seeking my fortune 

 in the mining regions of the far West, I became in due time a 

 teacher at Amherst. My connection with the Agricultural Col- 

 lege resulted directly from the opportunity there offered to begin 

 the accomplishment of my botanical purposes ; and already my 

 heart's desire to look upon the flowers of the Victoria unfolding 

 their beauty and exhaling their fragrance in my own country has 

 been repeatedly gratified in the Durfee plant-house. Whatever 

 has been or may be achieved at the College through my instru- 

 mentality, must therefore be credited to the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 dens at Kew. 



