Essex County J^\itural History Society. 269 



Art. III. Essex County Natural History Society. 



Floral Exhibitions. — Salem, June 20/A, 1838. The Essex County- 

 Natural History Society, as is well knowu to many of our readers, has 

 for a few years past been in the habit of connecting with its more pre- 

 cise and scientific pursuits, an occasional floricultural and horticultural 

 exhibition, at those seasons when the beauties of the garden, the flower 

 border, and the orchard, seem to invite a more particular attention to 

 their respective merits. This institution, w hose cabinets and scene of 

 operation are in the neigiiboring city, has been unobtrusively and silent- 

 ly working its way, under various ditKculties and embarrassments, and 

 by the efforts of a tew, deeply interested in the branches of science, has 

 created or excited a taste for the studies of nature. To aid its cause, 

 and to effect its aim, viz. the promotion of a stricter attention to the nat- 

 ural history of the country, it was thought advisable to go out of the 

 usual routine of other and older institutions, and to gather here and 

 there, amid the varieties of botany, a few gems of its sister science, hor- 

 ticulture. Occasional and periodical exhibitions of the varieties of the 

 native flora of the vicinity, mingled with the choice and exquisite em- 

 bellishments of the parterre, the green-house, and the little private flow- 

 er border attached to individual dwellings, have elicited universal ap- 

 probation, and called together the grave and gaj', the sober and reflec- 

 tive, the beauty and fashion, the citizen, and the visitant stranger of the 

 city. It has excited a laudable enterprise among amateur florists, and 

 drawn out many anew admirer of nature and its works. Where, twen- 

 ty years ago, in a place of great wealth and abundant means, one, or at 

 the most, two green-houses, could be found, and the exjiansion of that 

 queenly flower of night, the Cereus grandiflorus, could cause a sensation 

 not forgotten at the present day, now may be seen structures of all sizes 

 for the successful treatment of foreign species, the culture of the vine, 

 and the other uses to which glazed roofs and anthracite flues and hot 

 water pipes are severally applied. The flne prototype of the Cacteae 

 above mentioned, now finds many a rival in superb plants of more daz- 

 zling and less evanescent charms, grown with a skill which can foretell 

 the certainty of floral splendor and the result of proper cultivation. 

 One would scarce!}^ think of ins[)ecting a thermometer in the ordinary 

 vicissitudes of winter, when his eyes are now dazzled by countless ge- 

 raniums and delicate roses, and ivory petalled camellias, and nodding cy- 

 clamens, in almost every window before which his accustomed walk 

 leads him: while again he is agreeably surprised oftentimes at the ap- 

 j)roach of spring, ere he dreams of vernal l)reezes, when he jjcrchance 

 may catch a glimj)se of golden narcissa and pure white snowdrops, peep- 

 ing from the decayed foliage before many a private mansion. Persons 

 of observation have frequently remarked the increasing taste which has 

 spread among its citizens within a few years; a taste, who shall say 

 otherwise than laudable and refined? To what extent this may be at- 

 tributed to the formation and encouragement of the County Society, we 

 do not feel prepared to say, because other and kindred causes have been 

 coincident and effectual. Still, the very fact that each season evinces a 

 new and laudable zeal in the general interest, (a^ the occasional reports 

 of the society will show,) leads us to consider such eftbrts as promotive 

 of irood. 



We have offered these remarks as an introduction to the annexed re- 

 turns made to this Magazine, of the two first exhibitions of this kind, of 

 the present year. The citizens of Salem desire no com])etition with 

 others, in their floricultural pursuits; sufficient to them are the pure grat- 

 ifications of floriculture. Should their gardens contain not so choice an 



