of Horticulture in the United States. 7 



has been established about three years, seems in a very flourish- 

 ing state; and from the second and third annual reports, the lat- 

 ter of which has been lately published, the labors of the society, 

 though numbering but a few members, hav^e already been attended 

 with very important results. In the culinary department, we 

 doubt much if any horticultural society in the Union has exerted 

 the same zeal, or produced equal specimens. The great variety 

 exhibited at the weekly meetings should put some other societies 

 to the blush, whose attention should be more directed to that 

 which is really useful, than to that which is fanciful and luxurious. 

 The amount of money awarded to the members in premiums, in 

 the shape of medals, silver medals, &c. is very considerable, and 

 has tended to the creation of a competition which has been the 

 means of exciting the members to greater exertions. The an- 

 nual exhibitions of the society have been crowded with specta- 

 tors, and, were it possible to find a sufficient display of flowers 

 at the season when the city is as thronged as it usually is during 

 the session of Congress, we might anticipate a still greater ex- 

 tension of a horticultural taste. It gives us great dehght to no- 

 tice the part the ladies take in these exhibitions, and gives us 

 every reason to hope that we may, ere long, find our fair coun- 

 try-women here animated with the same zeal which distinguishes 

 one of them abroad. 



In Charleston a Horticultural Society was established in 1830, 

 which we hope will have a good influence in that quarter. Of 

 the state of culture in the Carolinas and the states bordering on 

 the Gulf of Mexico, it is difficult to speak in general terms, as 

 there is every variety of cultivation exhibited, from the first 

 breaking up of the virgin soil to high keeping of the gardens of 

 some of the enhghtened planters, where the most choice and 

 beautiful plants are grown in their full perfection. Mr. Legare, 

 the late able editor of the Southern Jlgriculturist, has made 

 many praiseworthy exertions in the cause of horticulture at the 

 south. The gardens of Dr. Young, of Savannah, rich in rare 

 plants from every part of the world, that of Major Le Conte, of 

 Riceborough, and of Dr. Wray, of Augusta, Geo., the former 

 with its superb collection of bulbs, and the latter with its succu- 

 lent plants, and those of Dr. McRee, Wilmington, Mr. Oem- 

 ler, Savannah, and the late M. Noisette, Charleston, have been 

 considered for a long time inferior to no private collections in 

 the Union. The field open to active horticulturists in the south 

 is of no mean extent. They have an excellent opportunity by 

 the acclimation or naturalization of the finer and more valuable 

 plants of more southern climates, to embellish their grounds to an 

 endless extent, and, what is of still greater importance, to give 

 to the country many new articles for staple produce, which, we 

 feel satisfied, only need a httle care and attention to become per- 



