6 



tion could bestow, and set forth by a taste formed on 

 a familiarity with the purest models in the walks of 

 polite literature ; and at our last anniversary, which 

 seems but as yesterday, the present state, and future 

 prospects of Horticulture, particularly in our own 

 country, were portrayed, in glowing colors, by one, 

 whose ardent zeal, whose energetic and successful 

 researches, have made him a master of the subject 

 he loves so well. ¥'ere I, therefore, to pursue the 

 track of those who have preceded me, it would be 

 the highest presumption to suppose that any observa- 

 tions I could make v/ould deserve attention. It 

 would be to offer the Society a few scanty gleanings, 

 after the full harvest has been gathered in. 



Other paths are indeed open, where clusters of the 

 loveliest flowers and richest fruits are displayed in 

 prodigal profusion on every side ; but, to make a 

 happy selection and profitable appropriation of them, 

 requires the skill derived from a series of attentive 

 observations which I have never made, and an in- 

 ventive originality which I never possessed. I am 

 aware of the severe sarcasms which are often, and, no 

 doubt, in many instances, justly thrown upon " closet 

 naturalists." I know the peculiar air of suspicion 

 with which practical men and " out-of-door students 

 of nature," regard all communications emanating from 

 such a source ; and I am not ignorant of the exulting 

 exclamation so often and so triumphantly reiterat,ed 

 by Linnaeus, " I care not how learned my adversaries 

 are, if they be only so from books r yet, from the 

 manner of my life, it is to books and the observations 



