CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. 31 



Worcester, New Haven, New York, and Philadelphia, and I 

 speak of these societies in particular because I have attended the 

 exhibitions of most of them, has rendered an immense benefit 

 to the country, not merely in the introduction of new and valuable 

 fruits and vegetables, and in what they have done to improve 

 and perfect the cultivation of those long known among us, but 

 in the improvement of the public taste, and the powerful stimu 

 lus they have given to the cultivation of flowers and the forma 

 tion of gardens and ornamental grounds throughout the country. 

 Few countries in temperate latitudes are richer in the floral 

 kingdom of nature, and the luxuriance of vegetable growth and 

 the splendors of vegetable beauty, than the United States. 

 Why should not flowers be cultivated ? Was the human eye. 

 that wonder of wonders, that matchless organ of our physical 

 constitution, that inexhaustible instrument of exalted and varied 

 pleasures, made in vain? Are the forms of beauty in the natu 

 ral world, infinitely multiplied as they are around us, made for 

 any other purpose than to be enjoyed ? And what better means 

 can we take to strengthen the domestic affections, of all others 

 the most favorable to virtue, than to render our homes as beauti 

 ful and as attractive as possible ? Who does not see constantly 

 the influence of external circumstances upon character as well as 

 comfort ; and perceive how greatly order, exactness, and personal 

 neatness contribute to form and strengthen the sense of moral 

 exactness and propriety ? 



The horticultural establishments of England, their vegetable 

 gardens, their flower gardens, their shrubberies and plantations, 

 their greenhouses and conservatories, are upon the most exten 

 sive scale. 



XL CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. 



Another marked difference in the agricultural condition of 

 England arid the northern portion of the United States, is in the 

 climate. 1 cannot speak with any confidence of Scotland, but 

 the climate of England must be pronounced highly temperate. 

 Ft is favorable to the growth and the constant vigor and freshness 

 of the grasses. It is not only temperate, but moist. The last 



