1893.] ESSAYS. 93 



they train the mind, they also promote powers of observation which are 

 of greatest vahie in all business of life, and which will incidentally 

 give much pleasure and enjoyment by encouraging an appreciation, 

 and the study, of natural matters that are always at hand; and which 

 our Park Systems are securing to our citizens for all future time. 



Thus healthful ramblings in woodlands are promoted, and horticul- 

 tural findings are encouraged in a useful and improving manner. 



Besides what I have said, we must centre our efforts to secure the 

 best relations between our leading Agricultural and like societies 

 (Horticultural included) in our own ccnmtry, and similar societies in 

 older countries ; and we must see that they are kept in close relations 

 with the best practical, business and scientific societies and men at 

 home, as well as with our country's representatives in foreign climes. 

 We must seek every possible chance to keep advancing in such mat- 

 ters, and especially to preserve in Massachusetts her reputation for 

 sincere purposes in all public efforts for the people's welfare. 



I am well aware that certain nurserymen are making a specialty of 

 native plants and shrubs, but all that can be said and done, to aid in 

 popularizing such laudable efforts will enlarge their market, and in- 

 crease the trade in such products. 



The more that our native growth can find their way abroad, the 

 greater the chance that they will become better adapted to a broader 

 range of climate, and possibly may lead to improvements in our varie- 

 ties, or their increased hardiness. 



Such methods might permit a valued tree, or shrub, to be imported 

 back to its native land and into a latitude, where it would be wel- 

 comed, other than where it could survive if first moved directly from 

 its native habitat. 



While considering this subject with reference to possibilities of en- 

 larging our available trees and shrubbery, I recall suggestions that 

 have appeared in the press, and elsewhere, as to how much our rep- 

 resentatives in foreign countries could do for us, if they would turn 

 their attention, and that of the members of their official households, 

 when unoccupied with other business cares, somewhat more than now 

 appears to investigations of the conditions and practises, in the 

 countries where they temporarily dwell, with a view to ascertaining 

 what benefits can be made to accrue to the United States especially in 

 horticultural ways, that are probably now new to us. 



Some of our representatives abroad, probably most of them, do not 

 realize their opportunities in this line of usefulness, while others may 



