of others, that I must be principally indebted for the 

 entertainment, if any there be, in what I have pre- 

 pared to offer you at this time. 



It is admitted that among the various pursuits, 

 w^hich occupy the attention of man at the present 

 day, few hold a more distinguished place than Hor- 

 ticulture. Even in the primeval ages of the world, 

 before luxury had established its control over every 

 relation of human life, and the wants, and the ne- 

 cessities of man were confined to the immediate pro- 

 ductions of his native soil, we even then find that 

 *' the garden" was one of the primary objects of his 

 industry, and an important source on which he de- 

 pended for subsistence. Now, if the culture of the 

 kitchen garden, as a means of subsistence, be one of 

 the first arts attempted by man, on emerging from 

 barbarism, so is the flower, or at least the land- 

 scape garden, as an art of design, one of the last 

 inventions for the display of wealth and taste in 

 periods of luxury and refinement. 



Lord Bacon observes that "when ages grow to 

 civility and elegancy, men come to build stately, 

 sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were 

 the greater perfection." 



I propose to make this sentence the theme of my 

 discourse ; and crave your indulgent attention while 

 I attempt to inve tigate the causes of this tardy pro- 

 gress of Horticultural improvement, and point out 

 the way to obviate them. 



Notwithstanding the aversion most savages man- 

 ifest to working in the soil, and which in them is 



