FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 219 



vated fine varieties of fruit, to send specimens to the hall 

 on Saturdays, to be disposed of by auction at one o'clock 

 for the benefit of the Society ; and in the accounts of 

 the treasurer we find various sums credited from this 

 source. 



The first anniversary of the Society was celebrated 

 on the 19th of September, under the direction of a 

 Committee of Arrangements of fourteen gentlemen, 

 Vice-President Cook being chairman. An address was 

 delivered before the Society and others in the picture 

 gallery of the Athenaeum at three o'clock, by President 

 Dearborn. He gave an inter esting and comprehensive 

 view of the origin and progress of horticulture, its 

 various branches, and. its effects' in multiplying and im- 

 . proving the fruits of the earth. Near the close of his 

 address he said, 



' ' Having been so long dependent upon our transatlantic co- 

 laborators, it now becomes a duty to attempt a reciprocation of 

 the numerous benefits we have received ; and by emulating their 

 zeal, intelligence, and experimental industry, we must develop the 

 resources of our own county, which offers such an extensive, 

 interesting, and prolific field of research to the adventurous natural- 

 ist. Many of the most useful and magnificent acquisitions of the 

 groves, fields, gardens, and conservatories of Europe are natives 

 of the Western hemisphere. The indigenous forest trees, orna- 

 mental shrubs, flowers, fruits, and edible vegetables of North 

 America are remarkable for their variety, size, splendor, and 

 value. Extending from the polar regions to those of the tropics, 

 and from the shores of the Atlantic to the waves of the Pacific, 

 this mighty section of the continent embraces every clime and 

 eveiy variety of soil, teeming with innumerable specimens of the 

 vegetable kingdom in all the luxuriance of their primeval and 

 unexplored domains." 



Gen. Dearborn closed his oration in these words : 

 "Peters, Hosack, Lowell, Perkins, M'Mahon, Coxe, Dean, 



