b MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 



the office you have conferred. You have placed me at the 

 head of a society whose sole aim is the promotion of that 

 gracious art which, through all time, has been the companion 

 and the symbol of peace ; an art joined in closest ties with 

 Nature, and her helper in the daily miracle by which she 

 works beauty out of foulness and life out of corruption ; an 

 art so tranquillizing and so benign ; so rich in consolations 

 and pleasures ; and one, too, which appeals to all mankind 

 and finds votaries among rich and poor, learned and simple 

 alike. Let us be grateful to the three deities who preside 

 over these halls, and let us not fail to yield them a fitting 

 homage. Horticulture, which in their serene and graceful trin- 

 ity they combine to represent, is not one of the mechanic arts. 

 It is an art based on a science, or on several sciences. 

 When pursued in its highest sense and to its best results, 

 it demands the exercise of a great variety of faculties, and 

 gives scope to a high degree of mental activity. On the 

 other side of the Atlantic, horticulture as a profession stands 

 to-day in a position of eminence. It has proved an avenue to 

 social consideration and public honor. Ability, energy, and 

 self-knowledge can lead men to distinction by the pathways 

 of the garden as well as by the dusty road of what are 

 rather invidiously called the learned professions. Not only 

 England, but Belgium and France have had their Sir Joseph 

 Paxtons ; men held in high esteem for scientific attainments 

 and general culture. And this is but natural. Horticulture, 

 broadly pursued, is an education in itself, and no pursuit can 

 surpass it in training the powers of observation and induction. 

 The mind of the true cultivator is always on the alert to detect 

 the working of principles and carry them to their practical 

 application. To read the secrets of Nature and aid her in her 

 beneficent functions is his grateful and ennobling task. 



Many years ago, a band of public-spirited men laid the 

 foundations of this society. Its beginnings were feeble ; it had 

 its troubles and its storms ; but it was in wise and careful 

 hands. It survived the dangers of its infancy, and is now what 

 we see it ; not yet, let us hope, in its maturity, but in a 

 robust and vigorous youth, full of promise, if we, its present 

 guardians, will but stand true to it. Perhaps you are not all 

 aware of the extent of the debt we owe to our founders, some 



