ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, 



And Gentlemen of the 



Massachusetts Horticcltural Society : 



It were strange, indeed, should one with my 

 feeble abilities, on such an occasion as the present, 

 attempt to address such an audience as that now be- 

 fore me, without experiencing some inward misgiv- 

 ings, and betraying some outward perturbation, — 

 without feeling the immediate necessity of saying 

 something to secure an interest in their favorable re- 

 gard, and predispose them to look with somewhat 

 more of lenient candor on his efforts to please, than 

 belongs to a rigid though a just criticism. I know 

 too well the value of your time to imagine this may 

 be done by a protracted exordium, however highly 

 elaborated, or gracefully uttered ; but I cannot for- 

 bear alluding, as among the disadvantages of my posi- 

 tion, to the circumstance of its being but two years, 

 since, in this place, we were instructed and delighted 

 with whatever, relating to the early history of our art, 

 could be drawn from the stores of a mind imbued 

 with all the knowledge which a profound investiga- 



