176 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ering the first snowdrop of spring or the last aster of autumn, 

 touch as with a vibrating chord that latent love for Nature which 

 few do not possess, awaken aspirations for things beautiful, and 

 bring 3-011 into sympathy with the objects of our association? 



"Welcome, then, to us be this Temple of Flora! Here come 

 and bring your lovely flowers, gathered, it may be, fresh from 

 the dewy fields and pastures, or plucked in earl}' morn in the culti- 

 vated border, the choicest offerings of your tasteful care, arranged 

 in innumerable forms, and sparkling with colors of every hue. 

 From these walls may there ever irradiate that spirit of beauty 

 which shall not only draw within 3'our extending circle ever}' lover 

 of nature or art, but whose glorious effulgence shall not be dimmed 

 until the whole world becomes a garden ! " 



Though this building is so familiar to the members 

 of the Society, it may be well to give some description of 

 it for those less acquainted with it, as well as for a 

 record in the future. The external style and appear- 

 ance are of a dignified and monumental character. 

 The front, on Tremont Street, which faces westerly, is 

 divided into three general divisions, the central division 

 being decorated with an order of coupled columns, 

 repeated in pilasters behind, and carried through the 

 three stories, Doric in the lowest, Ionic in the second, 

 and Corinthian in the third story. A rich cornice 

 crowns the whole fagade, surmounted by a central attic 

 as a pedestal for a statue of Ceres, cut in white granite. 

 The windows have semicircular arched heads ; those in 

 the front being crowned with cornices, which in the 

 second story are supported by brackets, while those in 

 the third story have the spandrels enriched with carving. 

 The angles of the front are decorated with projecting 

 piers cut with vermiculated quoins, and forming bases 

 at the top of the entrance story for two statues, that of 

 Flora at the south-western, and that of Pomona at the 



