11 



I repeat it, — every farmer, and I may almost say, 

 every man in the community, may be, if not a distin- 

 guished, yet a skilful florist. One would suppose 

 that little else would be necessary to render us so, 

 than the contemplation of the splendid example 

 which nature has set us, in the profusion with which 

 she has scattered over our land the choicest treasures 

 of the vegetable world. America may be denomin- 

 ated the classic ground of the botanist ; and, as the 

 painter or sculptor visits Italy, to study the wondrous 

 works of Raphael or Angelo, so to the admirer of 

 magnificent and beautiful plants, no country can pre- 

 sent more interesting objects than ours. None is 

 endowed with a richer variety of indigenous produc- 

 tions ; from the pine, whose summit seems lost in 

 the clouds, to the velvet carpeting of mosses which 

 overspreads the margin of the rivulet. We possess 

 many wild flowers, which want no other recommen- 

 dation than that of rarity, to entitle them to rank 

 with the most costly exotics. Witness the stately 

 Rhododendrons of Medfield, and the spicy Magnolias 

 of Cape-Ann. What spectacle can be more magnifi- 

 cent than that presented by our woods on the banks 

 of the Connecticut, when their shady recesses are 

 absolutely illuminated with the brilliant and clus- 

 tered blossoms of the Mountain Laurel. Above all, 

 what exotic can surpass our Pond-Lily ? — a flower, 

 rivaling in beauty the far-famed night-blooming 

 Cereus, — possessing, too, a most delicious fragrance, 

 which is altogether denied to its kindred in the 

 Eastern world, and which is so delicate and ethereal, 

 that all the power of Chemistry is insufficient to 



