REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 353 



opportunities, so that a delightful landscape is readily detected from an inferior 

 one. Still, these same people placed in the role of painters of landscapes, 

 would produce the veriest daubs. Still, these same persons are very liable, 

 because they are accredited with good taste, to have the assurance to think 

 that they can be their own landscape gardener and succeed. Again, others 

 who desire to have the most delicate taste exhibited in the adornment of their 

 premises will employ a laborer, who may know mechanically how to lay turf 

 and plant trees, but nothing more, to arrange the grounds, and expect, a fin- 

 ished landscape. As well expect a house painter to render an exquisite study 

 in oil. Our city is full of these mistakes. Our society has the power to edu- 

 cate correctively in this matter. 



Fifth, the earth with us for a number of months in the year, is locked with 

 frost. We are debarred from the enjoyment of the live beauties of nature 

 grown out of doors, and we try to create a bit of summer of our own in-doors, 

 but how little is accurate information disseminated regarding the best manage- 

 ment of plants and flowers as grown under these artificial conditions. What a 

 field of active usefulness is here for a horticultural society. 



Sixth, but I think really one of the greatest benefits that our society may 

 accomplish is to develop among the ladies a greater love for the attractions of 

 the garden produced under their own supervision and care. I cannot express 

 my own thoughts and wishes so well as Downing has for me when he says: " We 

 have not the least desire that our American wives and daughters should have 

 anything to do with the rough toil of farm and garden beyond their own house- 

 hold province. We delight in the chivalry which pervades this whole country 

 in regard to the female character, and which even foreiguers have remarked as 

 one of our strongest national characteristics. But we would have them seize 

 on that happy medium between the English passion for everything out of doors, 

 and the French taste for nothing outside the drawing room. Everything that 

 relates to the garden, the lawn, the pleasure ground, should claim their imme- 

 diate interest. And this not merely to walk out occasionally and enjoy it, but 

 to know it by heart; to do it, or see it all done; to know the history of any 

 plant, shrub, or tree from the time it was so small as to be invisible to all but 

 their eyes, to the time when every passer-by stops to admire and enjoy it. 

 Every lady may not be born to " love pigs and chickens " (though that is a good 

 thing to be born to), but depend upon it, she has been cut off by her mother 

 nature with less than a shilling's patrimony if she does not love trees, 

 flowers, gardens, and nature as if they were all a part of herself." 



The keenest satisfaction and greatest charm comes from touching the grow- 

 ing things, and having a personal intimacy with their development. If our 

 society can awaken an enthusiasm among our lady friends in this matter, we 

 shall do a noble work. 



Seventh, our city has done very little, as yet, in the way of furnishing 

 delightful walks, beautiful flowers, and welcome shade for those who are unable to 

 own these pleasant home attributes, having no homes of their own. The exhi- 

 bition of taste in the adornment of parks, public grounds, and cemeteries, has 

 given character and individuality to some cities in our country. And it must 

 not be forgotten that the first rural cemetery in our country, Mt. Auburn, 

 originated with the Massachusetts horticultural society; and the loveliest rural 

 cemetery in the world, Spring Grove, at Cincinnati, owes its inception to 

 a horticultural society. In short, we believe our horticultural society, if prop- 

 erly understood, appreciated, and used, may help largely every member in our 



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