HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 305 



ence is in the individual; the object is the same. Wordsworth 



says: 



"Who has no inward beauty, none perceives, 

 Though all around is beautiful. ' ' 



And Coleridge says: ' 



" We receive but what we give. 

 And in our lives alone does Nature live." 



There is a charm, refreshing and exhilarating, in the study of 

 nature, not to be found elsewhere. Nature's museum lies at the 

 very threshold of our own doorway if we but open our eyes to 

 the fact, and seek the wonders, to the careful observer revealed; 

 and we possess no one faculty capable of so great cultivation as 

 the faculty of observation. This power of observation is the 

 power of intensifying thought upon objects seen, so as to produce 

 lasting impressions. To be able to see a fact and make an intel- 

 ligent note of it is a faculty all possess, in a degree only limited 

 by the amount of cultivation we have given it. A distinguished 

 writer has said: " The eyes are of no use without the observing 

 power." And how negligent we are about cultivating that 

 power. Of how many of us can it be said: "Having eyes, they 

 see not." The faculty of observation has much to do with the 

 success of horticulturists; they must possess the power to inves- 

 tigate, read, and interpret nature in an eminent degree; they 

 must be able to go to the fountain head and draw knowledge 

 from the original source. He who can observe nature under- 

 standingly is like the mariner, who, with chart and compass, 

 <}ares not for the shining of the sun nor the glimmering of the 

 north star, but steers confidently on o'er the trackless deep with- 

 out a fear, for he has an unfailing index before him. The culti- 

 vation of the power to observe should be commenced very early 

 in life, for with it many a difficult lesson is easily mastered. 



The profession and study of horticulture would seem to the 

 ■casual observer to be one unending round of delightful and pleas- 

 ant duties. The horticulturist lives close to Nature's great 

 hear*^^, and to him she confides her utmost secrets; to him she 

 discloses the wonderful problem of assimilation and growth. 

 Through the propagation of her fruits and flowers she reveals to 

 him the laws which govern the material world. She is his hand- 

 maiden, and by her aid he watches the scale of gradation from 

 the lowest form of organism to man. Her book is open to him, 

 and on its pages he reads laws that are identical in lower and 

 Vol. IV— 64. 



