60 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Indifference and ignorance, in relation to the higher details of 

 gardening, are so general that it will not be possible to revolu- 

 tionize them in a day ; nor shall we see a decided increase in horti- 

 cultural taste and refinement until lapse of time, and further 

 growth in civilization, shall have afforded those opportunities of 

 research and experience which are needed to teach all the beautiful 

 possibilities of floriculture, and shall have demonstrated to us that 

 among the fruits .'^nd flowers may be found delights, which, once 

 tasted, will never be willingly forgotten or relinquished. 



But a hopeful augury for the future appears in the rapid and un- 

 precedented increase of popular interest not raerel}- in tlie outward 

 forms and varieties of plants, but in their culture, development, 

 and improvement as well. Within ten years amateur and pro- 

 fessional horticulturists have originated many striking novelties 

 and improvements in popular flowers, and we already see our 

 seedling roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations sent abroad 

 to grace the pages of foreign catalogues. All this marks decided 

 progress; mostl}', it must be confessed, confined to the pro- 

 fessional grower, but with such a start we have every reason to 

 hope that in this great country, with its varied climates, we shall 

 yet develop a circle of skilled amateurs, who, while the}' niay 

 not outrival such men as Ewbank, Maw, Horner, Ellacombe, Wil- 

 son, and many other noted Englishmen of the same class, ma}' at 

 least achieve sufficient success to have their names, and the results 

 of their labors, similarly esteemed. Tlie present list of American 

 amateurs, who devote their attention with any marked results to 

 the improvement and development of the floral world, is a very 

 small one ; and it will remain so until we find our gardens filled 

 with a more varied selection of plants, and until a greater general 

 knowledge concerning them shall have been diffused, through the 

 influence of such organizations as this Society. 



When I undertake to advocate, against the popular and well- 

 known system of bedding, a resort to the great family of compara- 

 tively unknown hardy plants, and bespeak for them consideration 

 and cultivation, it is not with the hope or expectation of any im- 

 mediate general revolution in practice, but rather of inducing some 

 few to give up their beds of scarlet Geraniums and gaudy Coleus, 

 and find new pleasures among the Lilies, Narcissuses, Irises, and 

 the thousand and one other beautiful members of the hardy family. 



My remarks are directed more especially to the possessors of 

 small gardens, — those little plots of ground scattered in all 



