156 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



interests of horticultural science. The higher social condition of 

 those softer companions of our garden walks and labors and gentle 

 cares, the more liberal position awarded them under the influence 

 of advancing civilization, our deeper interest in their moral and 

 intellectual culture, and our more generous regard for their innocent 

 gratification, have interwoven a thousand graces and refinements, 

 once unknown, amongst the coarser texture of social life. Never, 

 indeed, do they enter so intimately into our joys and griefs and 

 affections, as in gardens and amongst flowers. For them, and not 

 for ourselves, we reclaim the scattered blossoms along the wilder- 

 nesses of Nature : we ask of them a more tasteful care in the 

 cultivation of their beauties, and, for their pleasure and adornment, 

 we mingle their glorious hues into innumerable shapes of grace 

 and loveliness. 



" Welcome, then, for this, if for no other cause, the hall which 

 you have thus prepared, and decorated and garlanded with the 

 choicest treasures of the spring. Long, long may it stand, an 

 evidence of no vain or idolatrous worship. Unlike those grosser 

 handiworks of cold and glittering marble, which crowned in ancient 

 days the baren cliff, or looked in lifeless beauty 



1 Far out into the melancholy main,' 



but touched with the spirit of every gentle and noble association, 

 and consecrated by the soul of all our dearest affections, welcome, 

 to them and to us, be this temple of the fruits and flowers." 



The building thus dedicated, and of which a view is 

 here given, was, so far as is known, the first ever 

 erected by a horticultural society for similar purposes. 

 The front was of granite, of chaste Grecian style. The 

 lower story was composed of four massive Doric piers ; 

 the opening on the right being the main entrance to the 

 hall, and the centre and left respectively the door and 

 window to the store, which occupied the larger part of 

 this story. Above the piers was a plain frieze and 

 cornice, forming a base for the fluted Corinthian pilasters 

 which ornamented the principal story, and which were 

 surmounted by a suitable entablature and pediment. 



