Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 339 



•'Sir, the production of fruits and flowers, gorgeous to the eye, rich 

 to the senses, their delicate juices, their elegant fornjs, their intermi- 

 nable coloring, raised from a little seed dropped into a patch of dirty 

 earth, is among the most wonderful and inscrutable efforts of nature. 

 But this effect of her power seems to be her amusement, her sport, 

 her pastime. The great work-shop of nature is in the corn-fields, the 

 wheat lands, the cotton grounds of the agriculturist and the planter. 

 There she provides food and clothing for her human family. There 

 is the necessary sustenance for man and beast. 



"But in the orchard and the garden you find her in her laughing and 

 frolic mood, amusing the imagination, cultivating the taste, dealing 

 with the beautiful, the delicate, the fair, for recreation and fancy. To 

 the astronomer, she speaks of architecture and builds the Universe. 

 To the farmer, she is a political economist, and feeds the world. To 

 the philosopher, she is full of deep science and abstruse learning, 

 though she discourses with the music of the spheres. But to you, 

 sir, to the florist and the horticulturalist, she comes al allegro, 



'With quips and cranks and wanton wiles, 

 And noils and winks and wreailied smiles.' 



"She is the poet of his heart. My toast is 



Fruits and Floioers — The poetry of nature. 



The President then proposed — 



Mount Auburn — The peaceful shades where repose the loved and lost of 

 earth. When we tread its umbrageous paths, may we not forget to whom 

 we are indebted for the conception of so mleresting a spot. 



General Dearborn, (the first President of the Society,) who was 

 prevented from being present, sent a letter, which was read from the 

 chair: — 



"Hawthorne Cottage, Boxbury, Sept. 16, 1842. — My Dear Sir, — For 

 the lamentable reasons which I stated to you, I am compelled to ab- 

 sent myself from the Annual Festival of the Horticultural Society; 

 you may be assured, however, that the deep and zealous interest 

 which I have ever taken in its meritorious efforts, to advance and ex- 

 tend a taste for useful and ornamental planting, has not only not abat- 

 ed, but that a long cherished passion for rural culture will be aug- 

 mented by time and be commensurate with my existence. 



"Horticulture, as a science and an art, was honored and cultivated 

 by Solomon and Ulysses, Pliny and Cicero, Bacon and Milton, Wash- 

 ington and Madison; and, with the rapid march of intelligence, they 

 are now deemed worthy of the admiration and attention of the most 

 illustrious princes, nobles, philoso|)hers, and warriors — of the most 

 enliiihtened men and most accomplished women, throughout the earth; 

 and is not this intellectual development in conformity to an establish- 

 ed law of our creation.^ — for as the soul of man descended upon him 

 in a garden, may it not be truly said, and allow me to offer as a sen- 

 timent — 



"A Garden — 'sic itur ad astra.' [This is the way to iieaven.] 



"With sincere esteem, I offer the most friendly salutations, 



"H. A. S. Dearborn. 

 "Col. M. P. Wilder, President Massachusetts Horticiiliural Society." 



