ADDRESS. 



Mr PnESIDEKT, 



AND Gentlemen of the 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society, — 



Another recurrence of the seasons has taken 

 place, — the seed has been sown, — the leaf has again 

 been put forth, and the flowers and the fruits are at 

 our hand, and we meet to celebrate the eighth anni- 

 versary of this Society. We have many things upon 

 which to congratulate ourselves — many things in 

 which the sensible observer and the interested culti- 

 vator may both rejoice. Our weekly exhibitions 

 during the past year have been of a kind truly attrac- 

 tive and worthy of the Society, — surpassing, as they 

 reasonably should, those of every former year, show- 

 ing a manifest extension of the science and practice 

 of Horticulture, and at the same time necessarily, an 

 increasing taste and refinement. 



I feel tempted to say something of these exhibi- 

 tions ; of their effect, not alone upon those who 

 contribute, but upon those who frequent as casual 

 spectators. They have a good moral effect, and 

 deserve, on that account to be well supported and 

 attended. There are few things more refreshing to 

 the man of business, or to any man, that will so 

 recruit the senses and charm the spirit as to step 



