DISCOURSE. 



Upojv the return of this annual festival I have the 

 honor to present to the President and Members of 

 " The Massachusetts Horticultural Society " the con- 

 gratulations of the season. 



During four years you have been associated for the 

 purpose of promoting Horticulture ; and, although the 

 summer has not been propitious, abundant evidence of 

 the utility of your united efforts is afforded by the 

 offerings of fruits and flowers with which your tables 

 are this day crowned. 



To ensure continued success, it is necessary, not 

 only to study the artificial science of Horticulture it- 

 self, and to practise it in detail, but to advert to the 

 close connexion subsisting between it and the natural 

 sciences of Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy. In the 

 interesting Address of your Botanical Professor,* de- 

 Hvered on the last anniversary, " the prominent fea- 

 tures of Horticulture and its associated and auxiliary 

 studies," were indicated. To pursue the subject so 

 ably opened would seem to be incumbent upon those 

 to whom, in the distribution of duties, you have as- 



* Malthus A. Ward, M. D. 



