14 



THE PRESIDENT OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY. 



o-ood taste, if we cannot achieve any great 

 work of genius. And we are happy to be 

 able to' say that we know many amateurs 

 in this country who unite with a refined taste 

 a creative genius, or practical ability to car- 

 ry beautiful improvements into execution, 

 which has already enriched the country with 

 beautiful examples of rural residences; and 

 we can congratulate ourselves that, along 

 withothertraitsoftheAnglo-Saxonmind,we 

 have by no means failed in our inheritance 

 of that fine appreciation of rural beauty, 



and the power of developing it, which the 

 English have so long possessed. 



We hope the number of those who are 

 able to enj&y this most refined kind of hap- 

 piness will every day grow more numerous j. 

 and that it may do so, we are confident we 

 can give no better advice than again to 

 commend beginners, before they lay a 

 corner stone, or plant a tree, ta visit and 

 study at least a dozen or twenty of the 

 acknowledged best specimens of good taste 

 in America. 



THE PRESIDENT OP THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICTJLTtTRAL SOCESTY'. 



[with a POKTRAIT.J 



We are enabled, in commencing our third 

 volume, to give our readers, not only our 

 usual frontispiece and engravings, but also 

 a fine steel-plate portrait of Makshall P. 

 WiLDSR, Esq., the well known President of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



For this plate, and the following me- 

 moir, we are under particular obligations 

 to the liberality of J. S. Skinnek, Esq., 

 editor of the Fanners^ Library. It would 

 have been gratifying to us to have been 

 the first viedium of making public some 

 sketch of the labors of our esteemed friend 

 and correspondent ; but the Farmers' Li- 

 brary has taken the lead in holding up to 

 public view the services of Americans who 

 have distinguished themselves rather in the 

 arts of peace than the arts of war. 



Mr, Skinner, agreeing with us, however, 

 that a horticultural journal is the more 

 appropriate channel for awarding honors to 

 one of our most successful devotees of hor- 

 ticulture, has most generously consented to 

 our making any use we please of the plate 

 and memoir in question, which we accord- 



ingly lay before our readers in the presenC 

 number. 



Every one knows the high rank whicb 

 the Massachusetts Society has held for 

 years past j and v/e hazard nothing in say- 

 ing that, under all circumstances, ihh So- 

 ciety, composed as it is of many of the 

 ablest horticulturists in the Commonwealth,, 

 has been especially fortunate of late years 

 in its presiding officer. In this country,, 

 without any patronage from government,, 

 from wealthy corporations, or powerful pa- 

 trons, great energy, unwearied perseve-^ 

 ranee, and muchskill and tact, are necessary 

 in its executive officers, to maintain the 

 influence, meet the large expenses, and 

 justify the expectations of the community 

 regarding such institutions. All these qua- 

 lities are found singularly united in the 

 subject of the memoir to which we refer. 

 His indomitable energy and large store of 

 practical knowledge, are only equalled by 

 the generous and unselfish manner in which 

 he gives every possible moment to the duties 

 of his position, and the cordial urbanity and 



